Did Biden, Hagel and Kerry go to these countries on their own, or what?
Feb 15---
US Lawmakers to Observe Pakistani Voting
By FOSTER KLUG – 6 days ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior U.S. senator who will observe next week's crucial Pakistani elections said Friday the United States should consider cutting Pakistan's military aid if the vote is rigged.
Sen. Joseph Biden told reporters that reducing aid is the only leverage the United States has to push Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to ensure Monday's parliamentary elections are free.
Biden, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is touring Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Turkey with Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic candidate in the 2004 presidential election, and Chuck Hagel, a leading voice on foreign affairs among Senate Republicans.
Biden, D-Del., said rigged elections probably would spark rioting throughout Pakistan. Pressure is mounting on Musharraf, he said, to hold a vote that will be accepted by international observers and Pakistan's people. {more at link below}
ap.google.com
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Next we find the Senators in India Feb 20th
US Senators: India, Act Now on Nuke Deal
22 hours ago
NEW DELHI (AP) — Time is running out for Indian leaders to finalize a landmark nuclear cooperation pact with the United States, three U.S. senators said after meeting with India's prime minister.
Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that "it was critical if India wanted that deal, that they move on it relatively soon, within a matter of weeks."
"You cannot run the clock out and expect us to be able to get it done," Biden said after he and Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., met Wednesday with the Indian leader in New Delhi.
The deal, which must be approved by Congress, would reverse three decades of American anti-proliferation policy by allowing the U.S. to send nuclear fuel and technology to India, which has been cut off from the global atomic trade because of its refusal to sign nonproliferation treaties and its testing of nuclear weapons.
Kerry said the Senate needs to receive the deal "somewhere in May at the latest" so it has time to vote on it before the lawmakers' summer recess.
Biden, D-Del., said it was crucial that the current Congress vote on the deal because it was likely the next president would want to renegotiate the agreement.
{cont’d at link below: ap.google.com
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Now from Azerbaijan Feb 21 (US PST 10:57pm)
Senators' helicopters forced to land in Afghanistan
22.02.08 02:21
news.trendaz.com
( dpa ) - Helicopters carrying former presidential hopeful John Kerry and two other senators were forced to make an emergency landing in Afghanistan Thursday, military and congressional officials said.
The helicopters carrying Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and senators Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel landed in the mountains of Afghanistan during a snowstorm, press secretaries for two of the senators said.
The senators waited several hours until US troops arrived on the scene and evacuated them by ground to Bagram Air Base, which lies 47 kilometres north of Afghan capital, Kabul.
"No one was injured, everyone is safe," Kerry's Capitol Hill office said.
The three senators were set to depart for their visit to Ankara, Turkey.
Kerry failed in his bid to unseat President George W Bush from the White House in the 2004 election and decided against running in the current campaign. Biden is the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and dropped out of the 2008 presidential campaign early in the race.
Hagel, the most critical Senate Republican of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq, plans to retire when his term expires at the end of this year.
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Same story, but from Bloomberg: Afghan Snow Forces Helicopters Carrying U.S. Senators to Land
By bloomberg.com
Jeff Bliss
Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Snow forced helicopters carrying U.S. Senators John Kerry, Chuck Hagel and Joe Biden to make an unscheduled landing in the mountains of Afghanistan early today, a Kerry spokesman said.
David Wade, the spokesman, said no one was hurt and that U.S. troops evacuated the lawmakers to the American air base at Bagram, near the capital, Kabul. From Bagram, Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, Biden, a Delaware Democrat, and Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, traveled to their next stop, Ankara, Turkey, he said.
``Everyone is safe,' Wade said in an e-mailed statement.
The lawmakers are traveling during the week-long congressional recess in observance of the Presidents' Day U.S. holiday. Biden is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which the other two senators also serve.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 21, 2008 16:15 EST |
