US President George W. Bush, seeking to polish his tarnished image as a strong leader in times of crisis, vowed on Friday to keep a close eye on Hurricane Rita but stay out of the way of response efforts.
Stung by the fierce criticism of Washington's response to killer Hurricane Katrina, Bush postponed a trip to his adoptive home state of Texas and hastened here to a military base for a briefing on Rita's destructive power.
The president, who has suggested that the US armed forces must have a broader role in future disaster relief, came to the Colorado Springs headquarters of the Pentagon's Northern Command, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to guard the US territory.
Bush took in a roughly hour-long briefing on rainfall and flooding projections linked to Rita and was expected to have dinner with military officials here before traveling to Texas yesterday.
Earlier, the president decided at the last minute to cancel a scheduled visit to San Antonio, Texas to avoid getting "in the way" of emergency workers mustered to mount a swift response effort in Rita's aftermath.
Spokesman Scott McClellan said the search-and-rescue teams with whom Bush had been set to meet in San Antonio were redeploying to an area closer to where the powerful storm was set to make landfall along the Texas-Louisiana coast.
"We didn't want to slow that down," said McClellan, who had insisted for days that the president's frequent photo-opportunities in storm-ravaged areas have virtually no impact on efforts to respond to the powerful storms.
Bush planned to travel to Texas yesterday for a visit to a state emergency response center and to spend the night on an air force base.
Before leaving Washington, Bush visited the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and repeatedly tackled criticisms that his frequent photo-opportunities were sidelining rescue workers.
"One thing I won't do is get in the way," the president said.
Asked whether he was overcompensating for his administration's widely assailed Katrina response, Bush replied: "There will be no risk of me getting in the way, I promise you."
"We're going to make sure that we're not in the way of the operations. What I am going to do is observe the relationship between the state and local government, particularly out in Colorado Springs," he said.
"Our job is to assist, prepare for and assist the state and local people to save lives and to help these people get back on their feet," Bush said.
"NorthCom is the main entity that interfaces, that uses federal assets, federal troops, to act with federal and state government," he said. "It's an important relationship and I need to know how it works better."
Rita threatened Texas and Louisiana three weeks after Hurricane Katrina crushed the Gulf Coast Aug. 29, killing more than 1,000 people.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the