Amid calls by several Democrats in Congress for more rounds of hearings, Mr. Obama this week has hinted that Congress should create an independent bipartisan review commission — but avoided proposing it himself. White House officials apparently hope that a truth commission would satisfy Bush administration critics, while also preserving a degree of bipartisanship that Mr. Obama needs on some major policy initiatives this year, such as a health-care overhaul.”
 
Reuters — Pakistan deploys troops in Taliban-held district
 
The Taliban Wednesday claimed control of the Buner district of Pakistan – next to the Swat region already ceded to them by the struggling national government and loser to the capitol of Islamabad. Today, President Asif Ali Zardari, responding to pressure from the Obama administration, is sending 100 troops into Buner (population 1 million). The issue is whether Zardari will allow Islamic law to be imposed in Buner, as it has been in Swat.

“Within days of the government’s announcement of the imposition of Islamic sharia law in Swat, 125 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, militants forced their way into nearby Buner, closer to the capital Islamabad. They said their aim was to push their harsh version of Islam across the country.

Residents said the Taliban had occupied police stations in Buner and that gun-totting fighters were roaming market places urging people to support their efforts to impose Islamic law.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani reiterated on Thursday that the government had agreed to Islamic law on the advice of a secular party that leads the provincial government, but it could review the pact if peace was not restored.”

New York Times — U.S. May Fill Afghan Civilian Posts With Military Personnel
 
The Obama adminstration wanted to make the escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan an escalation of civilian help and nation-building, not just the military. But so far, the White House can’t find the civilians, diplomats and nation builders needed to go to the increasingly violent region. So the job is falling again to military, Pentagon civilians and private contractors.

Writer Thom Shanker reports that starting with about 300 Army reservists who will be called up based on the civilian skills needed in Afghanistan, the military will be fulfilling more non-military roles.

The unwillingness of the State Department, in particular, to work in war zones is nothing new.
“The issue was a source of friction between the Pentagon and the State Department in early 2007, shortly after President George W. Bush announced his order to send five additional combat brigades to Iraq in a new strategy that included an expanded civilian mission.

At the time, Mr. Gates shared his irritation with Congress over a State Department request for military personnel to fill more than one-third of the 350 new diplomatic positions that Mr. Bush had ordered to be created in Iraq.”
 
 
Bloomberg — U.S. Weighs Revealing Each Bank’s Capital Needs After Tests
 
Banks will start getting the news Saturday about how they fared in the “stress tests” to which they were subjected by regulators. But the big question is how to tell the public about the results on May 4.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has expressed concern that the fact that some banks will have done better than others could hurt the banks that do poorly in the eyes of depositors and investors, causing another round of bank failures. To this point, banks have been under a gag order that forbids them from touting their own soundness.

Writer Robert Schmidt explains that the banks may be lumped into four broad categories – those that don’t need more capital, those that can get new capital by selling stock, those that will convert their government loans into government ownership, and those that need another bailout.

“In one scenario under discussion, firms that fall between those strong enough to forgo new capital and those that need injections, the Treasury would provide the money immediately and the banks would announce that the investment is provisional.

‘Where there is a need for additional capital,’ banks will ‘work out with their primary supervisors what’s the best mix’ of options… Geithner told a congressional oversight panel in Washington two days ago. Choices include converting previous government investments from preferred to common stock, getting money from private sources or tapping the $700 billion financial-rescue program, he said.”
 
Washington Post – Federal Program to Boost Private Lending Struggles to Get Money to Consumers
 
Writer Neil Irwin explains that the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s plan to get consumer credit going again — the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility – has gone largely unused.

Irwin strangely crafts the story as bad news, but then reports that car loans, credit cards and other kinds of consumer credit are starting to flow again, just not because of the program.

“Officials envisioned TALF supporting tens of billions of dollars a month in new lending, saying it could eventually total $1 trillion. But in March, when it was launched, it backed only $4.7 billion in auto loans and credit cards. For April, it logged only $1.7 billion.

Sources involved in the program said private investors have been reluctant to work with the government, which they view as an unreliable business partner. Separately, the brokerage houses that are crucial intermediaries are being exceptionally cautious in the contracts they draw up with participants in the program, in part out of wariness that any mistakes could draw the ire of Congress or the media.”