1st Black Prez?
Obama vs. Osama?

Democrat Barack Obama has sought the advice of top campaign workers in Iowa and has established a seedling support network in this state as he prepares to decide whether to seek the 2008 presidential nomination.The first-term Illinois senator has surrounded himself with advisers rich in experience in Iowa, the leadoff caucus state.Obama has vaulted to the top tier among prospective candidates for the Democratic Party's nomination, even as the new star in the party says he has not made up his mind about running.The Iowa connections of Obama's campaign advisers and the senator's behind-the-scenes inquiry into the Iowa caucuses are hardly an announcement that he is running for president. But they show he is visualizing the presidential campaign process, in the event he decides to run.Obama said last month he was considering a campaign for president, as enthusiastic crowds turned out for his political appearances on behalf of other candidates and as he traveled the country promoting his best-selling autobiography.Shortly after the Nov. 7 election, Obama telephoned John Norris, the Des Moines Democrat who ran John Kerry's winning campaign in the 2004 Iowa caucuses."He basically called to talk about the lay of the land in Iowa," said Norris, who described Obama's inquiries as "earnest" and reflecting genuine uncertainty about his future.Iowa's presidential precinct caucuses are scheduled as the first nominating event of the 2008 campaign. Several Democrats have already expressed interest in competing in Iowa, although only Gov. Tom Vilsack has declared his candidacy for the nomination.Vilsack, who filed papers forming a campaign organization on Nov. 9, plans a public kickoff of his campaign this week, with events in Mount Pleasant, which he calls home, and in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Nevada and South Carolina.Besides Vilsack, the Democrats who have spent the most time courting the party's activists in Iowa include Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is believed to be weighing a campaign for the Democratic nomination.However, she has steered clear of Iowa since the 2004 presidential election while she has campaigned for re-election in New York.Clinton was re-elected handily this month, but she had not begun reaching out to Iowa activists as of last week.Norris told Obama during their recent telephone conversation that the 2008 Iowa campaign would be lively and that Vilsack's presence in the race likely would not deter participation."I said I think it's obvious other candidates are going to compete," Norris said. "Other people are getting in, and Iowa will be a factor. The outcome will be a factor."Obama did not ask if Norris would be willing to advise him, should he decide to run.Obama's three trips to Iowa since his election to the Senate in 2004 came this fall, beginning with his appearance at U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in mid-September.That event brought thousands of Iowa Democrats and dozens of journalists from Chicago and around the nation to Indianola, where the steak fry was held.Obama spent little time during the visit, or the two subsequent stops this fall, meeting privately with party leaders.Des Moines Democrat George Appleby saw Obama at Harkin's event and noted the appeal he seemed to have with the crowd of 3,000 at the Warren County fairgrounds.Appleby had been helping former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner make the rounds in Iowa.After Warner decided in October that he would not run for president, Appleby got in touch with Obama's people."I have talked with the Obama people, and I have agreed to do some initial stuff for him, pending his making the decision to go or not to go," Appleby said."They tell me he will make a decision within a couple of weeks."Since acknowledging interest in the 2008 race, Obama's name has shot to the second spot, behind Clinton, on most national preference polls for the Democratic nomination.Iowa City Democrat Dick Myers, the former minority leader in the Iowa House, has also agreed to serve as a caucus contact for Obama, should he decide to run, aides said.Obama also would have campaign workers at his disposal with institutional knowledge of Iowa politics.Acting as a key contact for Obama in Iowa is Steve Hildebrand, a longtime aide to former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle. Hildebrand ran Al Gore's campaign for the 2000 Iowa caucuses.Also part of Obama's team is David Axelrod, a Chicago-based media consultant who produced Vilsack's ads during his 1998 and 2002 gubernatorial campaigns.Axelrod also produced ads for Edwards, including for his 2004 Iowa caucus campaign.Longtime Democratic pollster Paul Harsted, who has worked for Harkin and Vilsack, is also signed on with Obama.The group of advisers suggests that Obama could mount a credible Iowa caucus campaign, said his spokesman, Robert Gibbs, who was Kerry's national spokesman for a time during the 2004 presidential campaign."Obviously, should he choose to run, he'll have a team that's very talented with good knowledge of the state," Gibbs said.

Gay son, pop's skeleton, out of closet

Estranged from his father, a gay Brooklyn man came home yesterday to make peace, only to make a horrifying discovery: His mother had been hiding his dad's corpse in the family's apartment for three years, police sources said.
Joanne Iversen, 73, told her son and cops that she never reported her husband's death because she wanted to continue collecting his Social Security benefits, the sources said.
Her horrific secret was exposed when her 38-year-old son, Paul Iversen, knocked on the apartment door early yesterday. He had not been home since he came out of the closet well before his dad's death, the sources said.
"I want to see Dad," Paul Iversen told his mom, the sources said. "I want to make everything right."
The elderly woman - who almost never allowed anyone into her Bay Ridge apartment - opened the door, sources said. "He's in the bedroom," she told her son.
Paul Iversen walked through the filthy apartment and to his horror found the skeletal remains of his dad, Frank Iversen, 75, in a fetal position under a pile of bed covers and clothes, the sources said.
Sickened by the discovery, he persuaded his mom to go to the cops just after 8 a.m.
At the 68th Precinct stationhouse, Joanne Iversen told cops that she and her husband had made a pact to hide the death of whoever passed away first so the surviving spouse could continue collecting Social Security benefits.
"He died of natural causes," she told cops, the sources said. "It was three years ago."
Detectives questioned the woman for several hours, but released her last night without filing charges. Cops were investigating whether she illegally obtained Social Security checks since her husband's death.
A police source said Joanne Iversen had told another estranged son she had buried her husband years ago.
Tenants in the Bay Ridge Parkway apartment building between Ridge Blvd. and Third Ave. said they noticed Frank Iversen, a quiet man who had worked as a painter, hadn't been around in years. But his wife always told them he had moved upstate.
"I always wondered if he was dead in there," said neighbor Bonnie King. "Frank just disappeared. There was no explanation." Other residents said there were clues, but no one put it all together.
"There were odor issues in that apartment," said Carole Clements, 64. "We complained a lot, but I would have never guessed there was a body inside."
Iversen had no history of medical problems. He hadn't been to the doctor since he got a marriage license.
The medical examiner's office will conduct an autopsy to determine how and when Frank Iversen died, authorities said.
"We don't think she's of sound mind to have done something criminal," a police source said.
"Maybe she's sick," Clements said of Joanne Iversen. "That doesn't make her a bad person."
The widow checked herself into Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

FOX PAYS FOR HOSTAGES(11/15) JERUSALEM--Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a United States source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olag Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told World Net Daily (WND).
The terror leader, from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, said his organization's share of the money was used to purchase weapons, which he said would be utilized "to hit the Zionists."
He said he expects the payments for Centanni and Wiig's freedom will encourage Palestinian groups to carry out further kidnappings.
Officials associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and its security organization, the Preventative Security Services, confirmed to WND money was paid for the release of the Fox News reporters.
A senior leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, the declared "military wing" of Fatah, said the group received a small percentage of the $2 million, which all parties interviewed said was transferred in cash.
Centanni and Wiig were released last August after being held hostage by terrorists in Gaza for nearly two weeks. Shortly before their release, a video was issued showing the two dressed in beige Arab-style robes and appearing to convert to Islam. Wiig, a New Zealand citizen, gave an anti-Western speech, with his face expressionless. Centanni later explained he and Wiig were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint.
One week after the abduction, a clan from the Gaza Strip which leads terror cells of the Popular Resistance Committees were prime suspects in the kidnappings. Senior Palestinian officials told WND their investigation into the abductions led them to the Dugmash family, based in Khan Yunis and Gaza City. They said they have "evidence" the clan was "heavily involved."
Members of the Dugmash clan lead the "Saladin resistance department" of the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella of Palestinian terror groups which previously carried out anti-U.S. attacks, including the bombing in 2003 of a U.S. convoy in Gaza in which three American government contractors were killed. The Committtees is also responsible for scores of anti-Israel shooting attacks and bombings and for a large number of rocket attacks against Jewish communities near Gaza. The senior leader of the Committees, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity, would not say whether members of his group carried out the Fox News kidnappings, but he admitted the Committees received money for "aiding" in the release of Centanni and Wiig.
The terror leader said $2 million cash was transferred to the Preventative Security Services, the main Fatah security forces in Gaza, for distribution to various parties.
He said the largest portion of the money was provided to the Committees' Dugmash clan, which Israeli security officials say is heavily involved in the smuggling of weapons and drugs into Gaza and which openly has led anti-Israel terror attacks on behalf of the Popular Resistance Committees. The Committees leader would not provide the exact sum transferred to the clan, but said it exceeded $1 million.
Smaller sums of cash were given to select members of the Preventative Security Services, officially to pay them as "private citizens" for working overtime to free Centanni and Wiig, the terror leader said. He said most of the Security Services members who were paid are associated with elements of the Dugmash clan. A member of the Security Services confirmed the cash transfers.
A sum of about $20,000 was provided to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, the Committees leader said, explaining the organization was paid to avoid conflict with militants from Abbas' Fatah party. The Committees is closely associated with Hamas, while the Brigades is a member of the rival Fatah party.
A leader of the Brigades in the northern Gaza Strip confirmed the money was received but maintained his group was not involved with the kidnappings.
The Popular Resistance Committees leader said aside from the large cash transfer to the Dugmash section of his group, the Committees as an organization received about $150,000.
He said the money was used to purchase weapons.
"We used 100 percent of the money for one precise goal – our war against the Zionists," the Committees leader said.
He said weapons purchased included rockets.
"Regarding the others (the Dugmash clan of the Committees) who received the money, I can tell you one thing is very clear – this went also to be used against the Zionists. I can't say every cent went to buy bombs, maybe it also went to pay for salaries, smuggling, buying shelter."
The Committees leader said he "knows" the money came from the U.S. as part of a deal to free Centanni and Wiig but could not identify exactly which organization or government entity transferred the cash.
A spokeswoman for Fox News Channel told WND she could not provide an official statement about whether Fox was aware of money paid to free its two employees.
A source at Fox told WND many parties were involved with the freedom of Centanni and Wiig, including the U.S. government, and that it was possible money was paid.
A State Department spokesman said his agency did not pay for the release of the Fox News employees.
The senior Committees leader and members of Fatah's Preventative Security Services told WND that as part of the cash transfer, leaders of the Security Services pledged to ensure against further kidnappings of Americans in the Palestinian territories.
But the Committees leader balked at the promise.
"This is just so the Americans can turn the affair into a beautiful thing by saying they have a pledge," said the terror leader.
"Maybe the Preventive Security Services took the promise but we didn't. They have no way of enforcing it. The Palestinian groups can still kidnap Americans. Maybe for a short period the groups will not kidnap Americans to show respect for the promises, but if there is an escalation, we will not hesitate to kidnap Americans."
The leader spoke three days after his organization and three other Palestinian terror groups signed a statement warning the U.S. is officially a target for Palestinian attacks, both in the region and abroad.
He told WND the cash transfers for the release of Centanni and Wiig likely will embolden Palestinian terror groups to carry out further abductions.
"This does encourage people to continue kidnappings," said the terror leader.

Arab states go nuclear

THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programs to master atomic technology.
The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran’s controversial nuclear program, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most unstable regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and into North Africa.
The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest.
All want to build civilian nuclear energy programmes, as they are permitted to under international law. But the sudden rush to nuclear power has raised suspicions that the real intention is to acquire nuclear technology which could be used for the first Arab atomic bomb.
“Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest [in using] nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes,” Tomihiro Taniguch, the deputy director-general of the IAEA, told the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest. He said that they had held preliminary discussions with the governments and that the IAEA’s technical advisory programme would be offered to them to help with studies into creating power plants.
Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that it was clear that the sudden drive for nuclear expertise was to provide the Arabs with a “security hedge”.
“If Iran was not on the path to a nuclear weapons capability you would probably not see this sudden rush [in the Arab world],” he said.
The announcement by the six nations is a stunning reversal of policy in the Arab world, which had until recently been pressing for a nuclear free Middle East, where only Israel has nuclear weapons.
Egypt and other North African states can argue with some justification that they need cheap, safe energy for their expanding economies and growing populations at a time of high oil prices.
The case will be much harder for Saudi Arabia, which sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. Earlier this year Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister, told The Times that his country opposed the spread of nuclear power and weapons in the Arab world.
Since then, however, the Iranians have accelerated their nuclear power and enrichment programs.