8A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESAY, APRIL 16, 2008
MIDDLE EAST
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A portion of the new U.S. embassy under construction is seen from across the Tigris river in Baghdad, Saturday, U.S. diplomats will begin moving into the mammoth new heavily fortified embassy next month after long delays in the $600 million project.
U.S Diplomats may be forced to work in Iraq
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats they may be forced to serve in Iraq next year and says it will soon start identifying prime candidates for jobs at the Baghdad embassy and outlying provinces, according to a cable obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
A similar call-up notice last year caused an uproar among foreign service officers, some of whom objected to compulsory work in a war zone, although in the end the
State Department found enough volunteers to fill the jobs.
Now, the State Department anticipates another staffing crisis.
"We face a growing challenge of supply and demand in the 2009 staffing cycle," the cable said, noting that more than 20 percent of the nearly 12,000 foreign service officers have already worked in the two major hardship posts — Iraq and Afghanistan — and a growing number have done tours in both countries.
As a result, the unclassified April 8 cable says, "the prime candidate exercise will be repeated" next year.
meaning the State Department will begin identifying U.S. diplomats qualified to serve in Iraq and who could be forced to work there if they don't volunteer.
The prime candidate list will be comprised of diplomas who have special abilities that are needed in Iraq, such as Arabic language skills, deep Mideast knowledge or training in specific areas of reconstruction.
"We must assign to Iraq those employees whose skills are most needed, and those employees should know that they personally are needed," Foreign Service
Director General Harry Thomas said in the cable sent to all diplomatic missions.
The cable describes how the department will fill upcoming vacancies at hardship posts like those Iraq and Afghanistan — although it doesn't plan to force any Afghanistan assignments. Diplomats will "bid," or apply, for positions in the war zones that will be advertised in May. After that, the department expects to begin identifying prime candidates for about 300 Iraq jobs that come open next summer, Thomas wrote.
The cable said more details will be announced next month, but identification of prime candidates is the first step in implementing so-called "directed assignments." That means ordering diplomats to work in certain locations under threat of dismissal unless they have a compelling reason, such as a health condition, that would prevent them from going.
Last year, after prime candidates were identified for 48 Iraq jobs that come open this summer, enough qualified volunteers came forward to avoid what would have been the largest diplomatic call-up since the Vietnam War — but not before the uproar over the prospect of forced tours made national headlines.
The State Department is hopping it can fill all of next year's Iraq vacancies with volunteers as it did in 2008.
"We hope to accomplish the same in 2009," the cable says. "A willing, qualified volunteer is always preferable to an employee sent involuntarily."
The union that represents U.S. diplomas shares that view.
"Unless there is some huge upward change in the number of positions, I think it's quite possible to staff the Baghdad embassy with volunteers," said John Naland, president of the American Foreign Service Association.
COMMUNICATION
Airwaves may be re-auctioned Republicans say measure will help fund nationwide emergency network
BY JOHN DUNBAR ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON—Republicans on a congressional panel Tuesday said the Federal Communications Commission should re-auction a block of public airwaves to the highest bidder and turn the proceeds over to public safety professionals to fund a nationwide emergency communications network.
The idea was raised as the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet heard testimony on why a plan aimed at using public airwaves and private money to create a nationwide emergency communications network failed to attract any interest in an otherwise successful spectrum auction.
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Cliff Stearns, ranking member of the subcommittee, both suggested the solution as an alternative to trying to fix the current plan.
"With consensus, Congress could pass a law to use proceeds
from the commercial re-auction for the public-private partnership," Barton said.
The subcommittee heard from all five members of the Federal Communications Commission as
well as key figures in the behind-the-scenes negotiations that failed to lead to an agreement to construct the wireless broadband network.
problem and avail emergency personnel of many of the advances in wireless technology that are available to commercial users.
The recently completed auction of a portion of the public airwaves, while raising a record $19.1 billion, failed to attract a bidder to build the network.
"With consensus, Congress could pass a law to use proceeds from the commercial re-auction for the public-private partnership."
Ideally, a new network would help solve the interoperability
Disasters like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, revealed limitations of the nation's emergency communications networks, like the inability of police and firefighters to communicate with one another.
The FCC approved the emergency communications plan last
JOE BARTON U.S. Representative (R-Texas)
summer. Under the plan, the FCC set aside about one-sixth of the recently auctioned airwaves. The "D block" would have been combined with a roughly equal portion of spectrum controller
The winning D block bidder, in exchange for use of the public safety spectrum, would build the network and make a profit by selling access to wireless service providers. But the block failed to attract a bidder.
by a public safety trust to create a shared network.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., said he was "presently unmoved" by suggestions that the block should be auctioned for "purely commercial
use" and the proceeds handed to public safety.
"At this moment, I consider such an approach to be an admission that we are not serious about attaining true interoperability," he said.
Estimates on how much a national network would cost have varied widely, but the commission has estimated it would cost between $6 billion and $7 billion. It is uncertain whether the block would generate that much revenue at auction, noted Democratic Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, said his agency would need legislative approval to proceed with such a plan.
Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, the nonprofit corporation that oversees the public portion of the spectrum, opposed the idea.
"I don't think that's a practical solution," he said.
McEwen said it would not provide enough spectrum to emergency responders and would be unlikely to raise enough money to build the network.
》 ECONOMY
Tighter regulations planned for hedge fund investments
BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Managers of hedge funds would have to improve the operating procedures of the giant pools of capital in such areas as transparency and risk management under new proposals offered Tuesday.
Two advisory groups assembled by the Bush administration proposed new "best practices" for the hedge fund industry, but a leading critic attacked the effort as falling far short of the mandatory government regulations that are needed.
One set of the recommendations was prepared by hedge
fund managers and the other was put together by investors who use the funds.
Treasury Secretary Hen rry Paulson said the recommendations would send
In early 2007, a presidential working group headed by Paulson rejected the idea that the funds needed increased regulation and said what was needed was improved voluntary standards for both fund managers and investors.
In unveiling the recommendations of the advisory groups on Tuesday, Paulson said the administration was not endorsing the status quo but rather pushing for improvements that would keep U.S. financial markets competitive in a global economy.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a key voice on financial matters in the Senate, said that Congress was just beginning to examine
"Hedge funds have become too big and too important to remain outside the rules."
"Hedge funds have become too big and too important to remain outside the rules," Blumenthal said in a statement. "Instead of voluntary guidelines, the federal government should set specific, common sense rules
However, Richard Blumenthal, attorney general of Connecticut, the home for many hedge funds, said the voluntary guidelines were a "virtual farce" that would do little to halt abuses in an industry that has seen explosive growth with assets now close to $2 trillion in an estimated 8,000 funds.
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL Connecticut attorney general
"a strong message that heightened vigilance is necessary and appropriate and that all stakeholders have an important role to play."
and provide for federal and state enforcement."
The release of the guidelines comes at a time when a severe credit crisis has roiled financial markets with many large banks
what needs to be done in the wake of the severe credit crisis but "in the interim these best practices should strengthen the hedge fund industry and provide
investors and regulators with better information."
The credit crisis claimed its biggest victim last month with the near-collapse of Bear Stearns, the country's fifth largest investment bank, which was taken over by JP Morgan Chase & Co. in a deal in which the Federal Reserve provided a $30 billion loan.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, that he expected Congress — not this year — but in the future to revamp financial regulations to better keep pace with financial innovations such as the growth in hedge funds.
"Instead of voluntary guidelines, the federal government should set specifics, common sense rules and provide for federal and state enforcement."
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL Connecticut attorney general
and investment houses being forced to declare billions of dollars in losses.
Hedge funds have been caught up in the turmoil as investors have grown worried about the solvency of funds that invested heavily in securities backed by subprime mortgages, where delinquencies have hit record levels.
Hedge funds, which operate with little government supervision, cater to institutional investors and very wealthy individuals. However, millions of ordinary people have also become unwitting investors in the funds through their pension plans.
The set of guidelines for investors was drawn up by an advisory panel headed by Russell Read, the chief investment officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement
System (CalPERS), the largest pension fund in the United States.
The other set of recommendations for hedge fund operations was draw up by an advisory panel headed by Eric Mindich, the head of Eton Park Capital Management, a large hedge fund.
Mindich said in an interview with The AP that the effort was intended to "raise the bar" for the industry. He said the proposals could be modified based on comments received during an upcoming 60-day comment period.
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