Senior Administration

WASHINGTON -- In a good-will gesture toward China, the Clinton administration has agreed to sell it a sophisticated $8 million supercomputer, senior administration officials said yesterday.The decision is part of the administration's strategy to embrace, rather than isolate, China despite disagreements over human rights, weapons proliferation and trade. The Clinton administration is determined to grab an ever-larger share of China's market, the fastest growing in the world, and reduce a trade deficit that could exceed that with Japan by the end of the decade.

Marjorie J. Bowers, who worked as a senior administrative assistant for city public schools for nearly three decades, died Aug. 22 of complications from leukemia at Stella Maris Hospice. She was 87. The daughter of a minister and a nurse, Marjorie Jones was born in Chestertown and later moved to East Baltimore with her family, where she graduated in 1942 from Dunbar High School. After graduating the next year from the old Cortez Peters Business School on Eutaw Place, Mrs. Bowers went to work as a secretary at Dunbar High School, rising to head secretary.

WASHINGTON -- The White House, already under fire for proposing to renew China's favorable trade status despite meager human rights reforms, is considering renewing arms sales to win influence with Chinese leaders, a senior administration official says.The idea of renewing the sales, which were cut off after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, is bound to be controversial, especially since the Bush administration has criticized Beijing for selling weapons to countries such as Pakistan.

WASHINGTON - - General Motor Corp., long the titanic symbol of American might and lately a stark reminder of the nation's failings, plans to file for the largest industrial bankruptcy in U.S. history today. The move, part of a government-led restructuring, ends months of anxiety and uncertainty about the legendary automaker, which only a decade ago was the world's largest company. GM becomes another victim of the deep recession, formally succumbing to years of bad management, questionable quality, changing consumer tastes and a historic collapse of global auto sales.

WASHINGTON - After weeks of uncertainty about the fate of Osama bin Laden, senior administration officials said last week that they had fresh indications he had survived the bombing assault on the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan and is probably still moving through the mountains that straddle the border between that nation and Pakistan. The administration is not claiming to have bin Laden cornered. Some senior administration officials say the evidence suggests that the search has "bounded his whereabouts," as one put it. But capturing or killing bin Laden looks like "a long-term proposition," the official said, and defense officials noted that none of the information has been specific enough for the United States to attack suspected hideouts.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Warren Christopher, worried that his efforts to repair relations with Beijing could be threatened by the case of two U.S. military officers caught watching military exercises from the Chinese coast, has demanded an investigation into why the Pentagon sent the men on such a politically risky mission, senior administration officials said yesterday.As the two men detained last week were expelled from China and returned to their base in Hong Kong yesterday, officials said Mr. Christopher, who is traveling in Asia, complained in telephone calls to Washington that the operations carried out by the officials put in peril a carefully orchestrated effort to reopen a dialogue with the Chinese and win the quick release of Harry Wu, a U.S. citizen held on charges of stealing state secrets.

WASHINGTON -- In a major change in policy, the Clinton administration told its allies this weekend that it could sign a treaty banning anti-personnel land mines under a compromise that would allow it nine additional years before it begins to remove mines on the Korean peninsula, senior administration officials said yesterday.Until yesterday, the United States had said it could not sign any treaty that limited its ability to use anti-personnel mines to defend South Korea from an attack from the North.

WASHINGTON -- Chinese leaders have told the United States that they plan to take a "wait-and-see" attitude toward Taiwan's new president and that they are open to resuming dialogue with the estranged island, a senior administration official said yesterday. The Chinese assurances, if borne out, come at a crucial time for the administration, which is scrambling to put relations with China on an even keel before President Clinton leaves office and to persuade Congress to upgrade economic relations with China.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is drawing up a plan to allow the United Nations Security Council to remove some sanctions against Iraq to allow Baghdad to sell petroleum for the purchase of food and medicine, the payment of war reparations and the cost of destroying weapons, senior administration officials say.The plan, which was drafted by the State Department, is being circulated for review within the department and at the Pentagon, the White House...

WASHINGTON -- The slaying of 15 U.S. soldiers in Somalia last week has forced the Clinton administration to rethink -- but not abandon -- its support for peacekeeping missions to other global hot spots.A mission already under way to violence-ridden Haiti will be beefed up. Another to Liberia may be scrapped all together. The biggest mission on the drawing board -- sending 25,000 troops to Bosnia -- could be jeopardized unless President Clinton can sell it to a wary American public.But the administration is far from ready to give up on peacekeeping as a key element of its post-Cold War foreign policy, and officials hope to use the costly lessons of Somalia to put peacekeeping on a sounder footing.

WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama ordered his first major deployment of U.S. combat troops yesterday, sending 17,000 more soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan for what he described as an urgent bid to stabilize a deteriorating and neglected country. The deployment marks a sizable intensification of the war effort and a new commitment of U.S. resources to the Afghanistan campaign. In a statement announcing the troop increase, Obama directed veiled criticism at the Bush administration, noting that the request for the troops from Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, had been pending for months.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military has used broad secret authority since 2004 to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against al-Qaida and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior U.S. officials. These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in spring 2004 at the direction of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack al-Qaida anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.

WASHINGTON - Despite his stated desire to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, President Bush has decided not to do so and never considered proposals drafted in the State Department and the Pentagon that outlined options for transferring the detainees elsewhere, according to senior administration officials. Bush's top advisers held a series of meetings at the White House this summer after a Supreme Court ruling in June cast doubt on the future of the detention center.

WASHINGTON -- Deeply concerned about the prospect of failure in Afghanistan, the Bush administration and NATO have begun three top-to-bottom reviews of the entire mission, from security and counterterrorism to political consolidation and economic development, according to U.S. and alliance officials. The reviews are an acknowledgment of the need for greater coordination in fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida, halting the rising opium production and trafficking that finance the insurgency, and helping the Kabul government extend its legitimacy and control.

WASHINGTON -- The White House postponed a meeting of the administration's top senior foreign and defense policy officials scheduled for today to debate the future of the terrorism detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but officials said the issue of whether to close the facility is likely to be discussed again. The Associated Press had reported earlier that the administration is nearing a decision to close the facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere. Senior administration officials said yesterday that a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where they could face trial.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has chosen Robert B. Zoellick, a former U.S. trade representative and deputy secretary of state, to replace Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank, a senior administration official said yesterday. Wolfowitz announced his resignation this month after a bank investigating committee found that he had violated bank policies by involving himself in personnel decisions concerning a staff member with whom he was romantically involved. He said then that he would leave by the end of June.

WASHINGTON -- In growing recognition that an 11-year policy aimed at overthrowing the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan is outdated, the Bush administration has not requested funds for the Afghan rebels in its proposed 1992 budget, senior administration officials say.In interviews last week, the officials stressed that the administration reserved the right to request funds for the program as the budget process continues over the next two months....

WASHINGTON -- Negotiators have completed a landmark agreement that would ban the production, use and stockpiling of chemical weapons and are preparing to submit it to the United Nations for endorsement, according to senior administration officials.Still, even with the expected agreement, significant obstacles remain before the treaty can fulfill its promise of ridding the world of poison gas.The treaty negotiations, which have plodded along with relatively little fanfare for more than 20 years, are expected to close tomorrow, when the 38-nation Committee on Disarmament meets in Geneva.

BEIJING - The Bush administration appeared to show signs of new flexibility in talks with North Korea yesterday, with U.S. and North Korean diplomats meeting here at length to discuss the delicate question of how aid or energy assistance may be provided to the North as it begins the process of dismantling its nuclear arms program. Delegations from the two countries met alone here for the second straight day to discuss a proposal the administration put forward in June 2004 before North Korea walked away from talks.

WASHINGTON - Senior administration officials defended yesterday the White House review of Bernard B. Kerik's background before his nomination as secretary of homeland security. One official said that even "controversial" material uncovered in a weeklong review had not appeared to endanger Kerik's confirmation. In interviews, the officials denied that the White House review of Kerik's background had been rushed. Scott McClellan, President Bush's press secretary, said, "It was a very thorough vetting process" that "looked at all the issues relating to his public, financial and personal background."