And you got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. ,Testy Fox interview, Clinton defends handling of bin Laden threat,In a combative interview on "Fox News Sunday," former President Clinton defended his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, saying he had tried to put bin Laden out of business and that he had been attacked for his efforts by the same people who criticize him now for not doing enough.

"That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now," Clinton said in the interview broadcast Sunday. "They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried."

Clinton accused host Chris Wallace of a "conservative hit job on me" and asked, "I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, 'Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?' I want to know how many people you asked, 'Why did you fire Dick Clarke?'"

He was referring to the USS Cole, attacked by terrorists in Yemen in 2000, and former White House anti-terrorism chief Richard A. Clarke.

Wallace said Sunday that he was surprised by Clinton's response to "a very non-confrontational question, 'Did you do enough to connect the dots and go after Al Qaida?'"

"I was stunned by this kind of conspiratorial view of all this," Wallace said in a telephone interview. "All I did was ask him a question, and I think it was a legitimate news question. I was surprised that he would conjure up that this was a hit job."

Clinton said he "worked hard" to try to kill bin Laden. "I authorized the findings of the CIA to kill him," he said. "We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody's gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him."

He told Wallace, "And you got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever, but I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it, but I did try and I did everything I thought I responsibly could."

Clinton also criticized the ABC miniseries, "The Path to 9/11," which critics accused of distorting his record on fighting terror.

"ABC just had a right-wing conservative running their little 'Pathway to 9/11,' falsely claiming it was based on the 9/11 Commission Report with three things asserted against me directly contradictory to the 9/11 Commission Report," he said.

The interview was taped Friday following Clinton's three-day Global Initiative conference, and Clinton said Wallace was to have devoted half his questions to the conference.

Clinton told Wallace, "You set this meeting up because you're going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because (Fox chief) Rupert Murdoch is supporting my work on climate change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you'd spend half the time talking about _ you said you'd spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion-plus in three days from 215 different commitments, and you don't care."

Gates seeks to calm feud with Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that a top Pentagon official did not intend to impugn her patriotism by suggesting that her questions about U.S. planning in Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.
At the same time, Gates defended his aide and the author of the letter, Undersecretary for Policy Eric Edelman, calling him "a valued member" who provides "wise counsel and years of experience (that) are critically important to the many pressing policy issues facing the military."

The letter also contains the most explicit admission to date that the Pentagon is in fact planning for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces, with Gates telling Clinton: "You may rest assured that such planning is indeed taking place with my active involvement."

In the three-page missive obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, Gates sought to calm a politically stoked exchange between the Pentagon and the Democratic presidential front-runner over planning for the withdrawal of U.S forces from Iraq.

The feud burst into the open last week when Edelman sent a stinging letter to Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who had sought answers in May about how troops, equipment and vehicles would leave Iraq.

Edelman wrote that public discussion of withdrawal "reinforces enemy propaganda that the U.S. will abandon its allies in Iraq" and exacerbates sectarian tensions there. The New York senator said Edelman's answer impugned her patriotism while avoiding serious questions about troop withdrawal plans.

Gates' letter, dated Wednesday, insisted that was not the point of Edelman's missive.

"I emphatically assure you that we do not claim, suggest, or otherwise believe that congressional oversight emboldens our enemies, nor do we question anyone's motives in this regard," Gates wrote.

The Defense secretary both agreed with Clinton that congressional oversight of military planning is needed and at the same time defended Edelman.

"I truly regret that this important discussion went astray and I also regret any misunderstanding of intention," Gates wrote.

"I agree with you that planning concerning the future of U.S. forces in Iraq — including the drawdown of those forces at the right time — is not only appropriate but essential," Gates wrote, adding that Edelman also agrees with that point.

The weeklong back-and-forth underscored the escalating animosity between the Bush administration and the Democratically controlled Congress in the standoff over Iraq policy, and the center seat the divide holds in the 2008 presidential race.

Clinton's spokesman Philippe Reines said the senator was "disappointed that Secretary Gates does not repudiate Undersecretary Edelman's unacceptable political attack."

Reines added that Clinton welcomes Gates statement that congressional oversight of the Iraq war is essential.

"She continues to believe strongly that there is absolutely no room for impugning the patriotism of those who rightfully engage in congressional oversight," Reines said.

The public feud between the Edelman and Clinton could win her points among anti-war voters and liberal Democrats, a critical constituency in primary voting that has challenged her 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq war.

Facing questions about the war during Monday night's debate, Clinton mentioned the letter and the feud.

Among her top Democratic rivals, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has argued that he opposed the war from the start when he was serving in the Illinois legislature. John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, has disavowed his 2002 vote giving President Bush the authority to oust Saddam Hussein's regime.

Clinton, in a call Friday with reporters, said in response to Edelman's letter that she was "shocked by the timeworn tactic of once again impugning the patriotism of any of us who raise serious questions" about the Iraq war.

She was joined in the call by 2004 Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who accused the Bush administration of making "planning a dirty word and an alien concept."

She also complained directly to Gates in writing, asking if he agreed with Edelman's comments. Edelman is a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, and served as an ambassador during the Bush and Clinton administrations.

Military leaders have long acknowledged that they have plans for all contingencies in the Iraq war — more recently saying they have looked at adding troops, pulling troops out and maintaining current levels.

They have provided no details, and insisted that decisions hinge on the report from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, which is due in September. Both men are to testify before Congress on how the current strategy is working and whether it needs to be revised.

U.S. says Qaeda safe haven may be inaccessible,Al Qaeda's safe haven in northwestern Pakistan is largely inaccessible to outside forces and unlikely to be eliminated soon by the U.S. or Pakistani military, top intelligence officials said on Wednesday.
At a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives, Pentagon intelligence chief James Clapper said the United States was not content to sit still while the militant network blamed for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington regenerated its strength in North Waziristan.


"I think our objective will be to neutralize, not eliminate, but certainly make this safe haven -- as we have the others -- less safe and less appealing for AQ," Clapper told a joint session of the House armed services and intelligence committees.


But Clapper, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, presented the task of eliminating al Qaeda's influence in the region as a long-term project that would hinge on U.S. economic aid to the local populace and contributions of military assistance including sophisticated surveillance equipment to the Pakistani military.


"This is going to be a long-haul process," he said. "I don't think we'll have any demonstrable change within (a) three-year time frame."


Added Clapper, "It's not just ... putting bombs on targets."


He and other administration officials spoke to lawmakers about al Qaeda's emergence in Pakistan after White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend refused to rule out U.S. military action against al Qaeda.


At a separate hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns reiterated the view that the United States would take unilateral action against al Qaeda in Pakistan under certain circumstances.


But he stressed that Washington's strong preference was to work with the Pakistani government. 
Burns also defended Bush's request for $750 million over five years in new aid to help bring jobs and other development to the lawless region. He said the administration would ask Congress to allow duty-free imports from the border region to aid economic development.


FAILED ACCORD


The Bush administration released unclassified excerpts of a major intelligence report last week that concluded the United States faces a heightened threat from al Qaeda in part because of the Pakistan safe haven.


Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has deployed more troops to Waziristan where militant tribesmen, accused of harboring al Qaeda and supporting the Taliban, have stepped up attacks after scrapping a 10-month-old peace deal with the government.


Officials in the House session said Musharraf's accord with tribal leaders in North Waziristan helped al Qaeda build up its safe haven but defended the agreement as a sincere but failed attempt to control militancy.


Mary Beth Long, acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told lawmakers that Pakistan now has 100,000 troops in the area.


But officials appeared to play down expectations that stepped up Pakistani military operations would lead to a full-scale assault on al Qaeda sites in a remote mountainous region populated by hostile and heavily armed tribes.


"Al Qaeda is now in a part of Pakistan that is largely inaccessible to Pakistani forces, the Pakistani government. Always has been. And it is a very difficult operating environment for them," said Edward Gistaro, the top U.S. intelligence analyst on transnational threats.


"It is just a very difficult environment for outside forces to operate in," he added.

Worst of Hurricane Season Still to Come, Nearly eight weeks have passed since the last tropical storm in the Atlantic-Caribbean region faded away, but banish any notion the 2007 hurricane season has been unusually slow and beware the coming months, experts say.Tropical Storm Barry, the second Atlantic storm this hurricane season, brought heavy rain to Florida in early June. No named storm has formed since, but forecasters warn that the season will likely get much more active this year.

Heading for Peak Time
Historically, the Atlantic hurricane season peaks Sept. 10. The greatest number of storms form from Aug. 20 until Oct. 14.

More on Hurricanes

The peak of the six-month season is just around the corner and forecasters are still predicting a busy one.

"There's absolutely nothing out of the ordinary," Gerry Bell, a hurricane forecaster for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said of the Atlantic season's first two months. "It's not slow. It's not fast."

On average, June and July produce zero to two named storms or hurricanes. So far this year there have been two. Andrea formed in early May, Barry on June 1.

There's plenty of evidence the first two months are meaningless as an indicator for the rest of the season.

In 2004, the first storm didn't form until August 1. It ultimately became Hurricane Alex and kicked off one of the worst Atlantic seasons in decades.

By mid-August that year, there had been five storms. The entire 2004 season saw 15 storms, including nine hurricanes.

Four of them, Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, hit Florida. Each caused more than $6 billion damage and all four rank among the top 10 costliest storms in U.S. history.

In 1998, the first storm didn't form until July 29. That season produced 10 hurricanes, including 155-mph Georges, which battered Key West, and 180-mph Mitch, which killed more than 9,000 people in Central America.

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew, the first storm of the season, didn't form until August 17. It devastated southern Florida to the tune of $25 billion and until Katrina in 2005 was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

Stormy September

Historically, the Atlantic hurricane season peaks on September 10 and the period from August 20 until October 14 produces the greatest number of storms.

From 1851 to 2006, September was the top storm-producing month, with 459, followed by August with 344 and October with 280, according to NOAA records.

Forecasters have predicted 2007 will see an above-average number of storms. The averages for the past 40 years are 10.9 storms, 6.1 hurricanes and 2.3 intense hurricanes with winds above 110 mph.

A Colorado State University team led by forecasting pioneer Bill Gray has predicted 17 Atlantic storms, with nine becoming hurricanes and five reaching intense strength.

NOAA's forecast calls for a range of 13 to 17 storms, seven to 10 hurricanes and three to five intense hurricanes. London-based Tropical Storm Risk predicts 14.7 storms, 7.9 hurricanes and 3.5 intense hurricanes.

Private forecaster WSI Corp. on Tuesday lowered its forecast to 14 storms from 15 and to six hurricanes from eight.

Others may do likewise because sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic have cooled 1-2 degrees Fahrenheit after running well above normal for the last few years.

"We're near average for sea surface temperatures," said Jeff Masters of online weather company Weather Underground. He says heavy Saharan dust has kept sunlight from heating the ocean, depriving potential storms of fuel.

Gray's CSU team is scheduled to update its forecast on August 3. NOAA's mid-season update will be released on August 9.

Researchers say the El Nino warm water phenomenon in the eastern Pacific, which strengthened unexpectedly and dampened Atlantic hurricane activity last year, is neutral and should have little or no impact this year.

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Factfile: XO laptop
The One Laptop Per Child project is one step closer to releasing the completed machine to millions of schoolchildren in the developing world. But what makes the computer so unique?


INTERNAL HARDWARE


$100 Laptop's energy saving innovations
To ensure the laptop is robust and can be maintained as easily as possible it omits all moving parts. It has no hard drive, CD or DVD drive. As it also packs a low power processor it has no cooling fans.
Storage : Instead of a large hard drive the laptop has 1GB of flash memory, similar to that used in some digital cameras.

The memory can be expanded using an SD memory card slot underneath the screen or by plugging in peripheral devices through the USB ports.

Files can also be backed up on to a "school server" - a larger computer installed in a classroom - or via an online system provided by search giant Google.


HARDWARE OVERVIEW
Processor: AMD 433 MHz
Memory: 256MB SDRAM
Storage: 1GB Flash
Processor : The chip, made by AMD, is much slower than most in today's PCs, operating at a speed of just 433Mhz. In comparison , some of today's high performance machines have multiple chips with speeds of up to 3GHz.

The off-the-shelf processor is designed to be energy efficient. Unlike a standard chip, which remains active even when nothing changes on screen, the AMD processor is able to shut itself down, only waking when it is needed. It has an inbuilt graphics card.

Wi-fi: To conserve as much battery power as possible the wi-fi adapter can operate even when the main processor is switched off or asleep. It is able to do this by having its own in-built low power chip. The adapter supports standard wireless protocols used in most homes and offices.



SOFTWARE

The laptop has a bespoke Linux operating system (OS) developed by leading open source software company Red Hat.
In contrast to sometimes costly proprietary software, open source software is free and allows users to access and alter the code. OLPC hopes some children will tinker with the code to develop new programs.

In comparison to standard operating systems (OS), it is very small when compressed, taking up just 130MB of space. By comparison, Windows XP takes up around ten times that amount, requiring 1.5GB of hard drive space.

Its user interface is known as Sugar. At the centre of the screen is a customised icon surrounded by a white circle known as the "doughnut". As different programs are opened icons appear in the doughnut.

Different programs take up different amounts of space on the ring depending on their size and system requirements. Because of the machine's limited memory, when the doughnut is full, no more programs can be opened.

It includes standard programs such as a web browser based on Firefox; a word processor able to handle most common document types, including Microsoft formats; a PDF reader and media player. In addition, it comes with games, a music creation tool and drawing programs.
WI-FI




One of the most recognisable features of the laptop is the dual wi-fi antennas, known affectionately as "rabbit ears". These boost the range of the wireless connection by between two-and three-times the normal range.
A test done in the outback of Australia under ideal conditions showed that two laptops could communicate more than 2km (1.2 miles) apart. In reality, the range will be much shorter than this.

Using standard wireless protocols, the laptops are automatically able to form a "mesh network" where each machine acts as both laptop and router, able to pass information between computers.

If one laptop is switched on in range of an internet connection (usually at a local school) all other laptops on the network can share the access.

Those computers furthest from the connection will have the lowest internet speeds. If there is no internet access, the laptops can still share data, video and information through the mesh.

It does not have an Ethernet port for use with wired internet connections .



SCREEN

The laptop has a low power dual-mode display, allowing children to toggle between colour and black-and-white screens.

Designed for use in outdoor classrooms, the full-colour transmissive mode is similar to any other Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), but in ultra low-power black-and-white mode the screen is readable in direct sunlight.

Many companies are interested in using the technology in standard laptop displays.

SCREEN OVERVIEW
19cm (7.5 inches) LCD display
Colour mode: Resolution 800x600 (133dpi); power consumption 1 watt
Black and white mode: Resolution 1200x900 (200dpi); power consumption 0.2 watt; sunlight readable
The screen can also swivel around to convert the laptop into an e-book or a games console.

It is also easily maintained. For example, a faulty backlight - a common complaint on aging laptops - can be replaced by undoing two screws.




POWER SUPPLY

A range of power supplies are available to countries buying the laptop. Two choices of rechargeable battery are offered with different chemistries. Both cost $10 (£5) to replace and hold their charge for at least four-times the amount of time as a normal laptop battery, according to OLPC.
For areas with an electricity supply, the computer can be used with an 18W power adapter.

In areas without access to the grid, various contraptions have been designed to plug directly into the laptop including a solar panel, a hand crank (similar to those used on wind-up radios), a foot pedal and a pull-string recharger, similar to a starter chord on a lawnmower.

The pull-string gives 10 minutes of charge for every minute of pulling. Group recharging stations can also be bought for schools where multiple batteries can be hooked up to solar panels or car batteries.



KEYBOARD

The sealed green rubber keyboard is waterproof and its size is designed for a child's hands. As well as being offered in a standard QWERTY layout it has various configurations for different languages such as Thai, Arabic, Spanish, and Urdu.
In addition, the keyboard does away with low-use keys such as Caps Lock. In their place are new buttons such as the "geek key" or "view source", which allows children to quickly see the underlying code used to write the program running on screen.

A "grab" key allows children to pan and scroll around the screen while a slider key on the top left-hand-side of the keyboard allows users to quickly see who else is part of the mesh network, who they are working with on collaborative projects and which of their friends are online.

Keys either side of the screen below the inbuilt speakers are used for gaming and reading e-books. A touchpad allows children to control the cursor and can be used as a drawing tablet using a stylus or the back of a pen.



PLASTIC CASE

The hard-wearing green and white plastic case is designed to be as waterproof and dustproof as possible for children walking to and from school.
When it is closed the wi-fi antennas lock the laptop and cover the only external openings, the data ports.

The laptop has been dropped from 1.6m (5ft), with the antennas up, with no breakages. According to OLPC, the laptop keyboard has also been dunked in water for 10 minutes with no effect.

The entire package is approximately half the weight and size of a standard laptop. Holes either side of the carry handle allow children to tie a scarf or string to the laptop so it can be carried over the shoulder.

It also features a coloured XO on the back cover. There are 400 different colour combinations so that children can easily distinguish their laptop.

In the future, the plastic case may be swapped for durable rubber.



VIDEO CAMERA

Situated on the right hand side of the screen, the still and motion capture camera allows video chat across the mesh network and the internet.
With a resolution of 640x480, the colour camera can also be used to take photographs or as a light meter for school projects.



DATA PORTS

Three USB ports will make it possible to connect a variety of peripherals including a mouse or larger keyboard. A microphone input and a line output will allow children to play music through external speakers and record sounds.

All of the ports are covered by the wi-fi antennas when the laptop is closed, preventing water and dust getting inside.

An SD memory card slot, underneath the screen can be used to expand the memory capacity or to load new software.

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