Morning Joe: Ahmadinejad Begins Second Term, Power Struggle Continues
Stories we're following today:
Ahmadinejad’s Opponents Snub Election Ceremony - New York Times [link]
- With a mass trial of more than 100 alleged dissidents under way, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was formally endorsed Monday as Iran’s leader for a second term. But several of his most prominent opponents, who have called his re-election fraudulent, stayed away from the event, news reports said.
The Making of an Iran Policy - Roger Cohen in the New York Times Magazine [link]
- The Obama Administration... faced a difficult choice between sticking with strategic outreach to the regime and questioning its legitimacy in the name of human rights. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose instincts on Iran have always been more hawkish than the president’s, “was pushing for a harder line sooner after the June 12 vote,” a Mideast expert close to her told me last month. She was supported by her friend Joe Biden, the vice president. They did not prevail. The tone was cautious; although Obama’s denunciations of the clampdown grew stronger as it worsened, the extended hand, which had proved more unsettling to Iran than all the Bush administration bluster, was not withdrawn.
Is China Finally Sticking It To North Korea? - Video Interview with Amb. Wendy Sherman with The New Republic [link]
- Ambassador Wendy Sherman, Vice Chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group and the former North Korea policy coordinator under President Clinton, defends the strategy Beijing has recently adopted towards Pyongyang.
Pentagon Eyes Accelerated "Bunker Buster" Bomb - Reuters [link]
- The Pentagon is seeking to speed deployment of an ultra-large "bunker-buster" bomb on the most advanced U.S. bomber as soon as July 2010, the Air Force said on Sunday, amid concerns over perceived nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran.
Spanish Village Wants to Cash In on Nuclear Past - Wall Street Journal [link]
- But the legacy of one of the world's worst nuclear-weapons accidents is proving hard to forget, and some townspeople have decided to cash in.
- Mr. Caicedo is lobbying his fellow politicians to build a nuclear-accident theme park on the site where one of the bombs landed -- "ground zero," as he calls it. He says he has asked U.S. government officials to declassify films, photos and documents on the accident so he can show off the stuff in a museum. He would also like to obtain the fuselage of a B-52 bomber "G" model like the one that exploded overhead 43 years ago.
The Lighter Side
Recent Rise In International Disputes Traced Back To Cute U.N. Tour Guide - The Onion [link]
- "The North Korean representative was so busy staring at her that he just nodded in agreement when the council condemned his nation's weapons program and voted to freeze its assets," Eritrean diplomat Berihu Alazar said. "Then the guys from South Korea and Japan started razzing him about it, trying to look cool in front of her. He turned bright red all of a sudden and threatened to wipe everybody off the face of the earth."