Ex-Bush Team Acclimates to Private Life

Karl Rove may still be grabbing headlines after the end of the Bush administration but several other senior aides to George W. Bush — though out of public sight — are quietly making their mark in the private sector.

The Bush administration has been history for seven weeks, and most of the ex-president’s senior aides from his eight years in office — with the notable exception of Karl Rove — have stayed largely out of public sight. But many are quietly making their mark in the private sector.

For former Vice President Dick Cheney, post-political life will revolve largely around two activities: spending time with his grandchildren and fishing in Wyoming’s rivers.

On Jan. 20, Cheney and his wife, Lynne, returned to Casper, Wyo., the small town in the western part of the state where he grew up.

“He’s definitely looking forward to more time with the grandkids and enjoying the private life,” a source close to Cheney told FOXNews.com, adding that the former vice president built a home in McLean, Va., and he plans to split time between the two states.

Cheney has acquired a BlackBerry since leaving office, the source said, and he’s programmed his grandchildren’s spring sports schedules into it.

In recent days the former vice president has held “small luncheons” to “invite people to talk about current events — both on the economic front and on national security issues,” the source said. “He follows what’s happening very closely.”

Cheney is expected to publish two memoirs focusing on his time in the White House and the 40 years he spent serving four presidents. The former vice president has signed with the Harry Walker Agency to pursue various speaking opportunities.

Condoleezza Rice is also reclaiming the life she had before joining the White House in 2001 as Bush’s national security adviser and later secretary of state.

Rice has returned to Stanford University — where she taught in 1981 and later served as provost — to work as a senior fellow on public policy at the Hoover Institution and as a professor of political science, Rice’s chief of staff, Colby Cooper told FOXNews.com.

Cooper said Rice is focused on addressing flaws in the country’s education system, and she plans to devote much of her work on primary schooling.

The former top diplomat also plans to publish two books — one on U.S. foreign policy and another on her parents’ influence in her life as she grew up in segregated Alabama during the civil rights struggle, Cooper said.

Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino — returned last week from a four-week visit to South Africa, where she volunteered with her husband at an HIV-AIDS clinic funded by Bush’s PEPFAR project.

“I left from Dulles Airport at 10 p.m. on January 20,” Perino told FOXNews.com, saying she was inspired to become a more effective advocate for the relief program after visiting Africa with Bush in February 2008.

For Perino, the trip was as much a self-realization as a humanitarian undertaking.

“I think over time as press secretary, I developed a very thick skin and put a shell around my heart that hadn’t really been there before,” she said.

“There was one point during the time we were volunteering when my heart burst wide open and I realized that this is why I came here — so I could remember who I was before.”

Perino said she has no plans to work on a political campaign in 2012, but she hopes to strike a deal with a major news network to become an on-air contributor.

“I think I can be a Republican voice at a time when the Republican Party is getting its footing,” she said, adding that she would like to put to rest misperceptions about Republican women.

“For a long time we have been misunderstood, and to borrow a word from George Bush, ‘misunderestimated,’” Perino said.

George W. Bush himself has returned to Texas, and he and Laura Bush recently moved into a new home in Dallas, the first time they’ve lived full-time outside an executive mansion since 1994.

The former president has plenty to keep him busy: there’s a library to build, books to be written and his mother’s health to be monitored.

While Bush has been mum for the most part on President Obama’s job performance, former Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto was out defending his old boss a week ago, and excoriating the new president for putting war funding into his annual budget request and criticizing the budgets of the previous administration.

“Our budgets were honest, open and transparent. Every dime spent was presented, debated, voted on and counted,” Fratto told FOX News.

Other high-profile Bush administration aides have also returned to their roots.

– Michael Mukasey

The former attorney general joined the international law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP last month. As a partner in the litigation practice, Mukasey focuses on “internal investigations, independent board reviews and corporate governance,” according to the firm’s Web site.

– Henry Paulson

The former Treasury Secretary joined John Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in January as a distinguished visiting scholar. He is also a fellow at the university’s Bernard Schwartz Forum on Constructive Capitalism, university spokeswoman Felisa Klubes told FOXNews.com.

– Stephen Hadley

President Bush’s national security adviser gave a speech on Jan. 7, 2009, to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, but there have been no reports yet on his post-political ambitions.

– Ari Fleischer

The former White House press secretary was hired as a media consultant to the Green Bay Packers last year. He currently works as president of his own New York-based firm — Ari Fleischer Communications, Inc. — where he handles communications work for corporations and sports companies. “I’m happily retired from active duty politics,” Fleischer recently told FOXNews.com.

– Donald Rumsfeld

President Bush’s first defense secretary reportedly received a one-year appointment as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in September 2007.

– John Ashcroft

The Bush administration’s first attorney general now serves as chairman of the Ashcroft Group, LLC, a strategic consulting firm that works with corporations in the areas of homeland security, corporate governance, and data security, according to the company’s Web site.

– Alberto Gonzales

No job has been announced for Bush’s second attorney general since he resigned in September of 2007. Gonzales told the Wall Street Journal in a Dec. 31, 2008, interview that the controversy surrounding his time in office has made law firms “skittish” about hiring him. “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror,” he told the newspaper.

– Andrew Card

Bush’s first chief of staff has served on the Board of Directors at Union Pacific Railroad since July 27, 2006, the company’s assistant vice president, Donna Kush, told FOXNews.com.

– Colin Powell

After retiring as Secretary of State in 2005, Powell joined the California-based venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, according to the firm’s Web site. Powell also served as a spokesman in 2008 for National Mentoring Month, a mentoring resource and recruitment organization. Powell also famously endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

– Robert Gates

Bush’s second defense secretary continues to serve in President Obama’s cabinet; he has held the position since Dec. 18, 2006 — a position he has held since Dec. 18 2006.

– Karl Rove

Since his resignation in August 2007 as deputy chief of staff, Rove has become a contributor for various news outlets, including Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal and FOX News Channel — where he worked as a political analyst during the 2008 presidential campaign. Rove also served informally as an adviser to John McCain during the presidential campaign, and he has traveled across the country to speak at colleges and universities.

– Karen Hughes

The former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs is currently global vice chairwoman of Burson-Marsteller, where she helps business leaders “strengthen their corporate/CEO reputations, achieve business goals through effective communications and shape positive public and stakeholder perceptions,” according to the Web site for the Harry Walker Agency, which represents her for speaking engagements.

– Michael Chertoff

The former homeland security secretary has signed with the Harry Walker Agency to speak on such topics as the “legal war on terror,” “cyber-security,” and “solving the immigration crisis,” according to the agency’s Web site. Chertoff is also writing a book about his experiences at the department, according to the Washington Post.

– Margaret Spellings

Since leaving office in Jan. 2009, the Bush administration’s second education secretary founded Margaret Spellings & Company, an education consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.

source.foxnews

Commentary: U.S. bill on Tibet confuses facts

BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) — The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a resolution on Tibet that is not only a gross interference in China’s domestic affairs but also confuses the facts of the issue.

The bill disregards the history and reality of the Chinese autonomous region by trying to justify Tibet’s dark ages, glorify the treacherous Dalai Lama and baselessly criticize China’s religious policy. To sum up, the bill is poles apart from the truth.

The lawmakers who wrote and supported the bill should know that Tibet’s democratic reforms bear great similarities to events that have happened on American soil.

Tibet’s democratic reforms 50 years ago abolished feudal serfdom, marking huge progress in the pursuit of human rights much like the end of slavery did in the United States after the Civil War.

The lawmakers who understand U.S. history well should know that history recognizes Abraham Lincoln, who safeguarded U.S. unity, as a great president. But how would they feel if somebody labeled the Union forces’ victory as an “invasion” and “occupation” of the South and demanded that Washington stop its “repression” of the southern people?

The lawmakers who supported the Tibet resolution boasted of their “moral standard” in human rights and said they “speak out from a sense of justice.” The measure they adopted, however, serves only to smear human rights progress in Tibet over the past 50 years.

If those House members really want to “speak for” human rights in Tibet, they should observe the striking similarities between the achievements in Tibet since the end of serfdom and those in the United States after the abolishment of slavery.

The United States has enjoyed economic and social progress since abolishing slavery, while Tibet has also ushered in a new era of development and prosperity since 1959.

People in Tibet have seen their lives profoundly improved after50 years of development. They are now fully executing their rights endowed by the Chinese Constitution and the law on autonomy in ethnic regions.

The region also has witnessed comprehensive progress in social life, as well as thriving religious and cultural development.

At the moment when the world is suffering from the contagious financial crisis, most Americans understand that all countries in the world, especially China and the United States should enhance their cooperation to tide over the current difficulties.

However, the House members’ approval of the bill has violated the basic principles guiding international relations and also poisoned the atmosphere for cooperation between the two countries.

Members of the U.S. Congress should respect the facts, root out their bias on China and show their morality and responsibility by not damaging U.S.-China relations.

source.chinaview/Yan

U.S. counterattacks DPRK charges

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Xinhua) — The United States on Wednesday reiterated its accusation against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), saying “bellicose rhetoric” by Pyongyang can only increase tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking to reporters, State Department spokesman Robert Wood rejected the DPRK’s charges that ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises amounted to war preparations.

“These exercises which take place, as you know, annually, are not a threat to the North,” Wood said, adding that Pyongyang’s “bellicose rhetoric is not helpful, it can only increase tensions in the region.”

On nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula, Wood said: “What we want to see happen is we want to see the North comply with its international obligations with regard to the six-party framework.”

The spokesman also attached importance to the verification of the DPRK’s nuclear program in the settlement of nuclear on the Korean Peninsula.

“What we tried to do with the other parties is to come up with a verification protocol that would allow us to be able to, indeed, measure what the North has submitted and to see whether it meets the requirements of the international community,” he said.

The six-party talks, involving the DPRK, the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, have been focusing on the settlement of nuclear issues on the Korean peninsular since August2003.

source.chinaview/Yan

Mass peace rallies held across N.Ireland after murders of soldiers

LONDON, March 11 (Xinhua) — Thousands of people took to the streets on Wednesday in Northern Ireland for mass rallies protesting the recent killing of two soldiers and a police officer.

Silent vigils organized by trade unions took place across Northern Ireland in solidarity for peace.

Two soldiers were fatally shot and four others injured last Saturday night in Antrim, Northern Ireland.

The dissident republican group Real IRA faction has claimed responsibility for the killing .

On Monday night, a Northern Ireland police officer was shot dead while on patrol in Craigavon, a town southwest of Belfast.

A group called Continuity IRA later said so long as there is British involvement in Northern Ireland, incidents such as the killing would continue to happen.

The killings have brought anger to the public in Northern Ireland, which has started to move forward after decades of conflicts.

Peter Bunting, assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said workers had to unite to ensure the peace process “was not derailed” by those with an “agenda of sectarianism”, the BBC reported.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that the rallies are evidence that the peace process “is here to stay and is working.”

Speaking in Parliament, Brown said everything possible would bed one to enhance security arrangements in the region.

“We will leave no stone unturned in making sure that he has available to him all the arrangements necessary to enhance security there,” he said.

“We are seeing a unity which shows the determination that the whole of the people of Northern Ireland want not only to see justice done but to send a message that the political process is here to stay and is working,” he said.

Members of Parliament will also gather Wednesday afternoon for 15 minutes to show their support for the peace rallies.

Meanwhile, the Sun newspaper has offered a reward of 100,000 pounds (140,000 U.S. dollars) for clues leading to the arrest of the killers.

source.chinaview/Yan

Sudan’s presidential election not effected by ICC decision:official

KHARTOUM, March 11 (Xinhua) — Sudan’s next presidential election, scheduled before the end of this year, was not effected by a decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Sudan, a Sudanese official said on Wednesday.

Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, deputy chairman of the Sudanese Electoral Commission, told reporters that the commission was conducting its preparations for the upcoming election regardless of the ICC arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

“The Electoral Commission continues to fulfill its mandate in accordance with the law and the constitution for the election being held on scheduled time,” the official noted.

“We have not been impacted and continue to perform our duties within the commission,” he said.

He added that the Electoral Commission was waiting for a budget to be adopted by the Ministry of Finance, to which a draft was transferred through the Sudanese presidency.

But the work within commission had not stopped, he stressed, adding that the commission was striving for the election being held on time.

The presidential election is to be the first all over Sudan since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between the Sudanese government and the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in 2005 to end a 21-year civil war.

But the March 4 arrest warrant issued by the ICC against the Sudanese president, the first against an incumbent head of state, has increased the variability of the presidential election.

source.chinaview/Yan

By Bai Jingshan

ANTANANARIVO, March 11 (Xinhua) — Chief of the General-Staff of the Madagascan Army was changed on Wednesday with the discharge of general Edmond Rasolomahandry appointed by President Marc Ravalomanana just one month earlier.

The new Chief of General-Staff, Colonel Andr¦ Ndriarijaona, took office on the bottom of dissension within the security forces during a brief ceremony at the headquarters of the General-Staff.

He was nominated by his rebel colleagues, who refused to obey orders from the government led by Ravalomanana to prevent anti-government demonstrations by the opposition supporters at the city center.

In Madagascar, Chief of the General-Staff of the army is normally appointed by the president.

The replacement of the army chief implicitly reveals mistrust of the army forces against the head of state Ravalomanana, who has been in power since 2002.

The decision to replace of Edmond Rasolomahandry was made at the time when he gave policy-makers of the country an ultimatum of 72 hours to find a solution to the political crisis on Tuesday, failing which the armed forces would “run national affairs”.

It is not clear at the moment if the ultimatum will be maintained by the new Chief of the General-Staff.

The replacement of the army chief also took place at the time when the Defense Minister Mamy Solofoniaina Ranaivoniarivo was force to sign a letter of resignation on Tuesday.

Media here reported that commanders of nine military barracks over the mountainous capital city joined force with some 600 rebel troops of the Army Corps of Personnel and Administrative and Technical Services, stationed at Soanierana, six kilometers from the city center.

Last Sunday, armed troops at Soanierana announced disobedience to orders from the regime to suppress the anti-government demonstrators.

It was reported here that the defense minister Ranaivoniarivo signed his letter of resignation at the gunpoint of the mutineers.

The rebel soldiers arrested one of the presidential guards and killed a policeman in civilian dress on his way near the barracks on Sunday evening, the private TV-Plus channel reported.

No armed troops have been seen since Monday at the roads to and from the city center, where the opposition had called anti-government gatherings ever since last December.

With the absence of the armed troops on the streets, bloody confrontations between supporters of Ravalomanana and Rajoelina have been continued in several locations of the city, causing dozens of casualties since Monday.

With the revolt of the armed forces, President Ravalomanana has to face the newly emerged situation, in which he must handle the challenge by his political rival, the sacked Antananarivo mayor Rajoelina.

The opposition leader has refused to participate in a planned three-day national consultation from the coming Thursday, a result of the mediation of the United Nations and the influential Christian Council of Churches in Madagascar.

The movement of Rajoelina said that “climate is not calm for such a meeting and that the Christian churches ‘is not credible’ to organize this kind of consultation. “

Rajoelina, nicknamed TGV, who lived hidden from an attempted arrest last week, was placed under United Nations protection after spending several days at the residence of French Ambassador to Madagascar.

source.chinaview/Yan