Iran Prez: No Talks Without Preconditions

(Newser) – Rebuffing President Obama’s call for beginning US-Iranian negotiations without preconditions, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pushed instead for a “clear-cut framework for talks.” In an interview from Tehran, the Iranian president told ABC’s This Week, “The agenda should be clear,” and complained that Obama didn’t respond to a congratulatory letter he sent the president upon his election. “We will help to bring change about,” he added.

The fallout from the CIA memo release continued to reverberate across the Sunday talk shows:

• Insisting Obama is taking the swine flu outbreak “very seriously,” Robert Gibbs urged Americans to remain calm on Meet the Press. The White House press secretary also said the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” had become a “rallying cry for those who wanted to kill us.”
• But on Fox News Sunday, Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Kit Bond called the release of the CIA “torture” memos a “stab in the back” to US troops.
• John McCain suggested Americans “move on” from the torture memo scandal, telling Face the Nation, “There’s an element of settling old political scores here.”
• Economic indicators may be looking up, but Larry Summers told Fox News Sunday the recession will likely intensify before it dissipates. The White House’s financial guru also was called out for snoozing during meetings. “President Obama wants us all to fulfill our American dreams, and I guess I was starting that day,” he quipped.