2 Investigators: Private Business, Public Property ? CBS Chicago

Timothy Dawson, left, is confronted by CBS 2's Dave Savini over a car-repair business Dawson apparently is running on Markham public property. (CBS)

Timothy Dawson, left, is confronted by CBS 2?s Dave Savini over a car-repair business Dawson apparently is running on Markham public property. (CBS)

MARKHAM, Ill. (CBS) -- How would you like a free place to run your business, with no cost or overhead?

2 Investigator Dave Savini found a government employee getting a sweet deal: running a private auto mechanic shop out of a Markham Park District garage.

CBS 2 went undercover, taking a vehicle to public employee Timothy Dawson, who looked it over and assessed its condition.

?More than likely, that?s a rod noise ? internal,? Dawson told 2 investigators.

Dawson was using a fenced-off storage area along with a large garage and tools that include a vehicle lift to fix people?s cars.? The problem is, the property belongs to the park district and is paid for with tax dollars.

Approached by Dave Savini, Dawson gave a variety of answers. At first, he tried to deny he was running the repair shop.?Then he denied he?s a government employee, even though he works for the park district.

Earlier, however, he said he was a high-ranking employee.

?They kind of promoted me here,? Dawson said. ?I?m now the director, too, so I?m basically running the whole park.?

Dawson insisted what he does here is nobody?s business but his. Savini suggested Dawson get his own space on private property.

?Why are you messing with me?? Dawson responded.

Former Markham Park District Executive Director Thomas Miggins says the garage should not be used this way.

?It is just fundamentally wrong,? Miggins said.??There can be potential liability. I would say if someone were to get hurt, or maybe a car wasn?t fixed properly, and that person might have an attempt to sue.?

Dawson says what he does is common in government.

?Evidently you ain?t been doing your job as an investigator,? he told Savini.

Miggins, the former director, says Board President Kenneth Muldrow Jr. gave Dawson permission to repair private cars at the garage.?Muldrow says Miggins, who has been fired, is to blame.

When asked how the park district would respond to CBS 2?s report about the private garage on public property, Muldrow said the agency?s attorney would offer a response. The lawyer has not yet offered comment.

Check out Dave Savini?s Facebook page

Source: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/16/2-investigators-private-business-public-property/

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Ohio Public Employee Pay Raises Cause Criticism (ContributorNetwork)

Publically funded social services agencies in Hamilton County have been widely criticized for approving raises during these harsh economic times, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The county commissioners approved pay raises and bonuses for numerous public agencies, some of which are requesting operating levy approval during the spring election, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The largest pay increase granted by Hamilton County Board of Commissioners went to Assistant County Administrator Jeff Aluotto. The $15,000 raise brings the public employee's salary to $130,000 per year, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Here are some facts and figures about the Hamilton County pay raises and bonuses:

* A total of 15 public agencies funded by Cincinnati area taxpayers received nearly $1.2 million in raises. The median increase of the 706 public employees granted raises was $1,425 per year. The county commissioners felt the raises were warranted because a number of positions were left vacant through attrition and many employees were forced to begin working 40 hour weeks, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

* Since 2008 Hamilton County has experienced budget cuts totaling $65 million, according to a county government budget report.

* County Board of Commissioners President Tom Chatham defended the raises, stating they were necessary to stop staff from resigning and going to work for other area public agencies which offered larger salaries, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Chatham also stated that is benefits residents when better employees are retained.

* The Public Health District granted 52 employees raises totaling $36,000, according to the meeting minutes.

* The Mental Health and Recovery Services Board approved raises for 33 public workers totaling $74,000, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Agency Director Patrick Tribbe now earns an annual salary of $225,014 per year. The agency plans to place a renewal levy on the November ballot. The agency oversees a $120 million budget to serve 27,000 drug and alcohol addiction clients.

* The Hamilton County Commissioners granted employees in the public defender's office a total of $227,094 in annual pay raises, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The top two county administrators and three public defenders received raises of more than $10,000.

* The Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services Board President Martin Miller defended the public employee pay increases during an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer. According to Miller, the raises were based upon merit and only those workers providing quality service were rewarded.

* Hamilton County's 2012 budget totals $206.8 million. The commissioners maintain control over 1,200 of the 4,600 county workers, according to the county government budget report. The commissioners approved $350,000 worth of administration budget cuts during the past two years.

* County Auditor Dusty Rhodes does not agree with the county public employee pay raises, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Rhodes called the increase outrageous during a recent newspaper interview. The county auditor did not agree with coaxing more taxpayer funds from levies or from government programs.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120117/cm_ac/10845245_ohio_public_employee_pay_raises_cause_criticism

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iPad 2 swapped with modelling clay and sold in Vancouver Future Shop store

Future Shop and Best Buy are investigating a scam where some iPad 2s purchased in its Vancouver stores turned out to be fake. It appears that scammers bought as many as ten iPad 2s and swapped them for modelling clay.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/zrviyps6nr0/story01.htm

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New model for possible malaria vaccination suggests mass vaccination for low transmission areas

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Clare Weaver
press@plos.org
44-122-344-2834
Public Library of Science

In the event that a vaccine for the prevention of malaria is licensed and ready for use (such as the research malaria vaccine RTS,S, which currently looks promising), distributing and giving the vaccine to three-month old infants via the World Health Organization's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) will be the most efficient mechanism in high transmission areas but for lower transmission areas, mass vaccination every 5 years might be a more efficient vaccination strategy, a new study has found.

In a modelling study led by Thomas Smith from the Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and published in this week's PLoS Medicine, the authors used 14 different models that simulated the transmission of the parasite that causes malaria (P. falciparum) in thousands of hypothetical individuals through different stages of malaria infection. The authors used each model to predict the health benefits over 14 years of the potential malaria vaccine RTS,S given by different vaccination strategies and found that the predicted benefits of giving the malaria vaccine using the EPI strategy were modest and similar over a wide-range of settings. However, EPI with an initial catch-up phase averted the most deaths per vaccine dose in individuals who had over 10 infectious malaria bites a year but in areas where people typically have two or less infectious mosquito bites a year, the authors' model found that mass vaccination strategies substantially reduced transmission leading to much greater health effects per dose than other strategies, even at modest coverage.

This study only reports the first stages of using ensemble modelling to predict the health effects of RTS,S vaccination, so future studies will need to combine the outputs of multiple models with economic analyses to provide a rational basis for the design of vaccine-containing malaria control and elimination programs.

The authors say: "The ensemble modeling approach provides more robust outcomes than single models, and our analyses suggest that such an approach produces greater confidence in predictions of health effects for lower malaria transmission settings than for higher ones."

The authors continue: "This study suggests that targeted mass vaccination with RTS,S in low transmission settings may be more efficient than national-level introduction via EPI programs, but there remains a need to analyze the feasibility and economics of such strategies and the circumstances in which vaccination will avert epidemics."

###

Funding: This research was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant 39777.01 and by the Malaria Vaccine Initiative. No funding bodies had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: Thomas A. Smith is on the Editorial Board of PLoS Medicine. AB used to be employed by the PATH Malaria Organization which was supporting the development of RTS,S, the vaccine which is the focus of this paper. AB left PATH prior to any collaboration on this paper. All other authors have declared no competing interests. The views expressed are those of the authors.

Citation: Smith T, Ross A, Maire N, Chitnis N, Studer A, et al. (2012) Ensemble Modeling of the Likely Public Health Impact of a Pre-Erythrocytic Malaria Vaccine. PLoS Med 9(1): e1001157. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001157

CONTACT:

Thomas Smith

Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute
Socinstrasse 57
Basel, CH 4002
Switzerland
+41 (0) 61-284 8273
thomas-a.smith@unibas.ch


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Clare Weaver
press@plos.org
44-122-344-2834
Public Library of Science

In the event that a vaccine for the prevention of malaria is licensed and ready for use (such as the research malaria vaccine RTS,S, which currently looks promising), distributing and giving the vaccine to three-month old infants via the World Health Organization's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) will be the most efficient mechanism in high transmission areas but for lower transmission areas, mass vaccination every 5 years might be a more efficient vaccination strategy, a new study has found.

In a modelling study led by Thomas Smith from the Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and published in this week's PLoS Medicine, the authors used 14 different models that simulated the transmission of the parasite that causes malaria (P. falciparum) in thousands of hypothetical individuals through different stages of malaria infection. The authors used each model to predict the health benefits over 14 years of the potential malaria vaccine RTS,S given by different vaccination strategies and found that the predicted benefits of giving the malaria vaccine using the EPI strategy were modest and similar over a wide-range of settings. However, EPI with an initial catch-up phase averted the most deaths per vaccine dose in individuals who had over 10 infectious malaria bites a year but in areas where people typically have two or less infectious mosquito bites a year, the authors' model found that mass vaccination strategies substantially reduced transmission leading to much greater health effects per dose than other strategies, even at modest coverage.

This study only reports the first stages of using ensemble modelling to predict the health effects of RTS,S vaccination, so future studies will need to combine the outputs of multiple models with economic analyses to provide a rational basis for the design of vaccine-containing malaria control and elimination programs.

The authors say: "The ensemble modeling approach provides more robust outcomes than single models, and our analyses suggest that such an approach produces greater confidence in predictions of health effects for lower malaria transmission settings than for higher ones."

The authors continue: "This study suggests that targeted mass vaccination with RTS,S in low transmission settings may be more efficient than national-level introduction via EPI programs, but there remains a need to analyze the feasibility and economics of such strategies and the circumstances in which vaccination will avert epidemics."

###

Funding: This research was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant 39777.01 and by the Malaria Vaccine Initiative. No funding bodies had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: Thomas A. Smith is on the Editorial Board of PLoS Medicine. AB used to be employed by the PATH Malaria Organization which was supporting the development of RTS,S, the vaccine which is the focus of this paper. AB left PATH prior to any collaboration on this paper. All other authors have declared no competing interests. The views expressed are those of the authors.

Citation: Smith T, Ross A, Maire N, Chitnis N, Studer A, et al. (2012) Ensemble Modeling of the Likely Public Health Impact of a Pre-Erythrocytic Malaria Vaccine. PLoS Med 9(1): e1001157. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001157

CONTACT:

Thomas Smith

Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute
Socinstrasse 57
Basel, CH 4002
Switzerland
+41 (0) 61-284 8273
thomas-a.smith@unibas.ch


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/plos-nmf011212.php

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Perry: Marines in video are 'kids,' not criminals

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Sunday accused the Obama administration of "over-the-top rhetoric" and "disdain for the military" in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows four Marines urinating on corpses in Afghanistan.

Perry's comments put him at odds with Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said the images could damage the war effort.

"The Marine Corps prides itself that we don't lower ourselves to the level of the enemy," McCain said when asked about Perry's position. "So it makes me sad more than anything else, because ... I can't tell you how wonderful these people (Marines) are. And it hurts their reputation and their image."

No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for swift punishment of the four Marines. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last week that he worried the video could be used by the Taliban to undermine peace talks.

  1. Other political news of note

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      Campaign sources say he will support Mitt Romney.

    2. Huntsman wins key SC newspaper endorsement
    3. Perry: Marines in video are 'kids,' not criminals
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    5. Gingrich goes to the dogs with Romney reference

A military criminal investigation and an internal Marine Corps review are under way. The Geneva Conventions forbid the desecration of the dead.

Texas Gov. Perry said the Marines involved should be reprimanded but not prosecuted on criminal charges.

"Obviously, 18-, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often. And that's what's occurred here," Perry told CNN's "State of the Union."

He later added: "What's really disturbing to me is the kind of over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military."

Later appearing on the same show, McCain said he disagreed.

"We're trying to win the hearts and minds" of the Afghanistan population, he said. "And when something like that comes up, it obviously harms that ability."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46004399/ns/politics/

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PFT: 'We're a dangerous team,' Coughlin says

Divisional Playoffs - Houston Texans v Baltimore RavensGetty Images

How will the Bills split the workload between their tailbacks next season?

Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald thinks people should take reports about the Dolphins staff with a grain of salt.

Patriots G Brian Waters won the first playoff game of his career on Saturday.

Those who have played for Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano in the past have good things to say about him.

Said Ravens LB Terrell Suggs, ?I always say that there?s a right way to do things, there?s a wrong way to do things, and then there?s the Ravens? way to do things. It wasn?t really pretty, but hey, we?re not really a pretty team. We got the W, and on to the AFC championship.?

The Bengals run offense doesn?t score well on a year-end report card.

Special teams improvement would be a big help for the Browns in 2012.

Who are Steelers fans rooting for in the AFC Championship Game?

Texans coach Gary Kubiak wasn?t upset that QB T.J. Yates checked into the play that turned into Ed Reed?s interception at the goal line.

Front pages tell the story of the Colts? drop from Super Bowl team to first overall pick over the last two years.

By leading the league in rushing, Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew continued a trend of AFC South teams out of step with larger NFL trends.

A healthy Kenny Britt would make the Titans receiving corps very deep next season.

Harvey Araton of the New York Times thinks Broncos QB Tim Tebow should have been with his team in the aftermath of Saturday?s loss instead of ?tending to his personal business? elsewhere in the stadium.

The Chiefs expect to be very good on defense next season.

With the Packers losing, the Raiders might see a quick resolution to their coaching search.

Mock drafts have the Chargers looking for help on defense.

Eminem hasn?t lost faith in Cowboys QB Tony Romo.

Giants DE Osi Umenyiora didn?t play against the Packers in the regular season, but came up with a huge forced fumble this time around.

The Eagles might benefit from bringing in voices outside the organization.

Will free agent Saints receivers be on the Redskins? shopping list?

The Bears will be looking at cornerbacks this offseason.

K Jason Hanson is excited about the Lions? turnaround.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy?s gambles didn?t pay off on Sunday afternoon.

It doesn?t look like the fight over a Vikings stadium will end soon.

Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is underwhelmed with the choice of Dirk Koetter as the Falcons? new offensive coordinator.

Fan interest in the Panthers seemed to rise sharply this season.

The numbers behind the Saints? loss to the 49ers, including their decision to step up the blitzing in the fourth quarter.

If the Buccaneers want to interview Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell for their head coaching job, they will have to wait a little while longer.

Cardinals RB Ryan Williams? rehab has him on track to start training camp with the team.

Is Rams owner Stan Kroenke not saying enough about keeping the team in St. Louis?

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News thinks the Giants will be a very tough opponent for the 49ers.

Jon Kitna spent many years with the Seahawks and he?s returning to the area now that he?s retired.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/16/tom-coughlin-were-a-dangerous-team/related/

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Housing bust still haunts the banks (AP)

NEW YORK ? The economy may be healing, but banks are suffering from a housing hangover.

JPMorgan Chase spent $3.2 billion last year to fight lawsuits, almost all of them over poorly written mortgages. That was down from $5.7 billion in 2010, but it made clear that housing still haunts the bank, five years after the bubble burst.

The bank said Friday that it set aside $528 million in the last three months of 2011 to fight lawsuits. It also spent $925 million in the fourth quarter to carry out foreclosures and handle mortgage defaults.

"There's still a huge drag," CEO Jamie Dimon said. "I mean, you're talking about several billion dollars a year in mortgage alone."

The expenses took a bite out of JPMorgan's quarterly profit, which fell 23 percent from a year earlier, to $3.7 billion, and missed Wall Street expectations. Stocks across the banking industry declined as a result.

For the full year, JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, posted a record profit of $19 billion, up from $17.4 billion in 2010.

JPMorgan also took a hit because of choppy financial markets. It collected $1.1 billion in investment banking fees, down 39 percent from the year before. Its fees for underwriting debt fell 40 percent, and 65 percent for underwriting stock.

The struggles came while the economy and the job market were showing signs of a real recovery. JPMorgan said the household finances of its customers were stabilizing, and more people paid credit card bills on time.

The customer improvements allowed the bank to book a profit of $730 million by reducing the reserves it had set aside for credit card defaults.

JPMorgan's profit for October through December amounted to 90 cents per share. Wall Street analysts surveyed by FactSet, a financial data provider, were expecting 93 cents.

It was the first time in four years that JPMorgan fell short of expectations. Profit fell 23 percent from $4.8 billion, or $1.12 per share, in the same quarter in 2010. Revenue fell 17 percent to $22.2 billion.

JPMorgan stock fell 3.4 percent to $35.60 in early afternoon trading. Its competitors followed: Citigroup was down 3 percent and Bank of America 2.5 percent. Wells Fargo, which relies less on investment banking, was down 0.3 percent.

Stock market traders take their cue from the results of large banks like JPMorgan, which has 50 million customers. The results demonstrated that it remains unclear how long the mortgage problem will be a drag on the industry.

During the housing bubble last decade, the banks gave out mortgage loans without checking for documents that proved the borrowers had jobs, or could even pay their monthly bills.

The boom in so-called subprime lending was one of the causes of the financial crisis that erupted in the fall of 2008.

JPMorgan and other banks are being forced to buy back many of the soured loans that they sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government lenders, during the boom. In the last quarter, JPMorgan lost $390 million from the buybacks.

The bank's higher litigation expense does not bode well for Bank of America, which has been damaged far more than JPMorgan from lawsuits related to mortgages. Last year, Bank of America agreed to pay close to $13 billion to settle mortgage issues.

The banks also face a mountain of lawsuits for documentation problems during home foreclosures. In December, Massachusetts sued five major banks, including JPMorgan, for deceptive foreclosure practices.

JPMorgan was the first major U.S. bank to report earnings. Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all report next week.

Among other highlights from JPMorgan's fourth quarter results:

? Corporate customers took out $110 billion in loans, 12 percent more than a year earlier. That suggests businesses are feeling more confident that demand for their products is picking up. The loans could be used to build factories, expand plants and open warehouses. Often that translates to job creation.

? In a closely watched and politically charged gauge, the bank set aside $1.2 billion, 36 percent less than the year before, to pay its investment bankers.

? The bank took a loss of $567 million from an accounting rule that applies to the value of its own corporate debt that it sells to investors. The value of that debt rose in the fourth quarter, but because the bank would theoretically have to pay more to buy it back on the open market, the bank takes a loss.

JPMorgan and the other big banks submitted this week to their annual Federal Reserve stress tests. The bank has asked for approval to raise its dividend for shareholders again.

Last year, the bank increased its quarterly dividend to 25 cents a share from 5 cents. Dimon told reporters that investors can expect a similar increase this year if regulators grant approval.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_jpmorgan_chase

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Plantronics Clarity Fortissimo speakerphone hands-on (video)

Music aficionados will recognize the term "fortissimo." It's used to signify belting out the tunes as loud as humanly possible, which is exactly what Clarity is hoping to achieve with its speakerphone that uses the name. The Clarity Fortissimo is geared toward those who are mobility-challenged, offering a massively loud 95dB speaker, huge buttons, voice activation, Bluetooth and DECT connectivity, and a large touchscreen display. The Fortissimo offers Plantronics' Vocalyst technology, which has the ability to push emails, messages and even social network updates. It also has a dedicated button that automatically dials Clarity's support center, where a rep can then program the phone remotely for you. Expect to see the Fortissimo available this spring -- we were quoted April / May -- and will retail for $500. We have images and video after the break.

Continue reading Plantronics Clarity Fortissimo speakerphone hands-on (video)

Plantronics Clarity Fortissimo speakerphone hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/13/plantronics-clarity-fortissimo/

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Tensions high, US warns Iran not to block shipping (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Tensions rising by the day, the Obama administration said Friday it is warning Iran through public and private channels against any action that threatens the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. The Navy revealed that two U.S. ships in and near the Gulf were harassed by Iranian speedboats last week.

Spokesmen were vague on what the United States would do about Iran's threat to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but military officials have been clear that the U.S. is readying for a possible naval clash.

That prospect is the latest flashpoint with Iran, and one of the most serious. Although it currently overshadows the threat of war over Iran's disputed nuclear program, perhaps beginning with an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear structure, both simmering crises raise the possibility of a shooting war this year.

"We have to make sure we are ready for any situation and have all options on the table," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, addressing a soldier's question Thursday about the overall risk of war with Iran.

Navy officials said that in separate incidents Jan. 6, three Iranian speedboats ? each armed with a mounted gun ? briefly chased after a U.S. Navy ship just outside the Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in the northern Gulf. No shots were fired and the speedboats backed off.

For several reasons, the risk of open conflict with Tehran appears higher in this election year than at any point since President Barack Obama took office with a pledge to try to bridge 30 years of enmity. A clash would represent a failure of U.S. policy on several fronts and vault now-dormant national security concerns into the presidential election contest.

The U.S. still hopes that international pressure will persuade Iran to back down on its disputed nuclear program, but the Islamic regime shows no sign it would willingly give up a project has become a point of national pride. A nuclear bomb, or the ability to quickly make one, could also be worth much more to Iran as a bargaining chip down the road.

Time is short, with Iran making several leaps toward the ability to manufacture a nuclear weapon if it chooses to do so. Iran claims its nuclear development is intended for the peaceful production of energy. Meanwhile, several longstanding assumptions about U.S. influence and the value of a targeted strike to stymie Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon have changed. For one, the White House is no longer confident it could prevail on Israel not to launch such a strike.

An escalating covert campaign of sabotage and targeted assassinations highlighted by this week's killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist may not be enough to head off a larger shooting war and could prod Iran to strike first.

The brazen killing of a young scientist by motorcycle-riding bombers is seen as almost surely the work of Israel, according to U.S. and other officials speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The killing on a Tehran street followed the deaths of several other Iranians involved in the nuclear program, a mysterious explosion at an Iranian nuclear site that may have been sabotage and the apparent targeting of the program with an efficient computer virus.

Iranian officials accuse both Israel and the U.S. of carrying out the assassination as part of a secret operation to stop Iran's nuclear program. The killing came a day after Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted as telling a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a "critical year" for Iran ? in part because of "things that happen to it unnaturally."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Panetta made a point of publicly denying any U.S. involvement, but the administration tied itself in knots this week over how far to go in condemning an action that could further the U.S. goal of stalling Iranian nuclear progress.

The U.S. position remains that a military strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities is undesirable because it would have unintended consequences and would probably only stall, not end, the Iranian nuclear drive. That has been the consensus view among military leaders and policy makers for roughly five years, spanning a Republican and Democratic administration.

But during that time Iran has gotten ever closer to a potential bomb, Israel has gotten more brazen in its threats to stop an Iranian bomb by nearly any means, and the U.S. administration's influence over Israel has declined.

Israel considers Iran its mortal enemy and takes seriously the Iranian threat to wipe the Jewish state from the map. The United States is Israel's strongest ally and international defender, but the allies differ over how imminent the Iranian threat has become and how to stop it.

The strained relationship between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays a role, as does the rise in influence of conservative political parties in Israel. U.S. officials have concluded that Israel will go its own way on Iran, despite U.S. objections, and may not give the U.S. much notice if it decides to launch a strike, U.S. and other officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

The Obama administration is concerned that Iran's claim this week that it is expanding nuclear operations with more advanced equipment may push Israel closer to a strike.

Obama last month approved new sanctions against Iran that would target its central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling.

A senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard force was recently quoted as saying Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz if the country's petroleum exports are blocked due to sanctions.

Panetta linked the two crises Thursday, saying an Iranian nuclear weapon is one "red line" the U.S. will not allow Iran to cross and a closure of the strait is another.

"We must keep all capabilities ready in the event those lines are crossed," Panetta told soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas.

He did not elaborate, but the nation's top military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey, has said the U.S. would take action to reopen the strategic waterway. That could only mean military action, and there are U.S. warships stationed nearby.

"The United States and the international community have a strong interest in the free flow of commerce and freedom of navigation in all national waterways," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday, adding that Iran is well aware of that position. "Our views are clear, we're expressing them publicly and privately, and I'll leave it at that."

International talks to barter Iran out of building a nuclear weapon are nearly collapsed, the United States and several partners are on the verge of applying the toughest sanctions yet on Iran's lifeblood oil sector, an increasingly cornered Iranian leadership is lashing out in unpredictable ways and faces additional internal pressures with a parliamentary election approaching.

All that adds up to a new equation, U.S. and Western diplomats said. A unilateral U.S. military strike on Iran's nuclear infrastructure remains unlikely but no longer unthinkable, while the likelihood of an Israeli military strike has increased.

Immediate consequences would probably include an unpredictable spike in oil prices, ripple effects in troubled European economies and a setback for the fragile U.S. economic recovery. Longer term, a strike or a full-on war would almost surely ignite anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and beyond and empower hardline political movements in newly democratic Egypt and elsewhere.

Although the Obama administration wants to avoid conflict, it is locked in a cycle of provocation and reaction that feeds Iranian fears and may make war more likely, said Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department Iran expert now at the Brookings Institution.

"The tactics the administration has been taking means conflict becomes more likely because of the potential for miscalculation and the level of tensions and frustrations on both sides," she said.

___

AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iran

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