NEWS The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 8, 2004 - 5A Poil: Voters' priori a stable WASHINGTON - As President imn Bush mulls what to do after winning U. re-election, voters say his first prior- on i ity should be resolving the situation in fort Iraq, where the fighting is growing more agai intense. " They also want Bush to cut the defi- reso cit, which ballooned under his watch, bor rather than pushing for more tax cuts, coll according to an Associated Press poll can' taken right after the election. ingc The voters' concerns stood in con- C trast to the priorities Bush cited after he plan defeated Democrat John Kerry. Bush "rev pledged to aggressively pursue major taxe changes in Social Security, tax laws and evei medical malpractice awards. Terrorism earl was a chief concern both for Bush and T many voters in the poll, get "I earned capital in the campaign, accu political capital, and now I intend to yea spend it," Bush said a day after becom- thev =.ing the first president in 68 years to win G re-election and gain seats in both the ing1 House and Senate. ersc Some 27 percent of respondents perc named Iraq as the top priority for the Rep president's second term, ahead of issues and such as terrorism, the economy and W health care. ingt Only 2 percent named taxes as a pri- educ ority. By more than a 2-to-I margin, vot- dev ers said they preferred that the president Slig balance the budget rather than reduce dom taxes further. anci After a campaign dominated by dis- D cussion of Iraq and terrorism, national ly t security issues are at the top of voters' Cou concerns along with the economy. Vot- is se ers were asked to pick from a list of S issues in the AP poll that included Iraq, able terrorism, the economy, unemployment, ther health care, education and taxes. cour Many voters on Election Day indi- abou cated they were also concerned about an o "moral values" - a broader concern Bi than specific issues such as health care unco and education. nom Republicans ranked terrorism first on "I the list, followed by Iraq and the econ- lin, omy as priorities for Bush. Democrats ager were most likely to name Iraq, followed afra by the economy and health care while judg ;'x. independents picked Iraq and then ter- arev x rorism, according to the poll conducted A for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs. a ju "He has to go 500-percent in Iraq," the. said Ruth Shoemaker, an independent a w and a retiree from Chula Vista, Calif. said "That's why I voted for the president." the1 Seven in 10 voters, including a major- T AP PHOTO ity of Democrats, would prefer that U.S. vote on Friday following a U.S. airstrike. American jets struck troops stay in Iraq until the country is mar insurgent stronghold. stable, instead of having them leave age1 Iraq mediately. J.S. troops are preparing for assaults nsurgent strongholds used as havens those mounting increased attacke inst coalition forces. There has got to be some kind of 'lution in Iraq," said Erwin Neigh- s, a Republican and a community ege teacher from Moberly, Mo. "Wd 't fold our tent without accomplish our goals." )n the domestic front, Bush says his ns to overhaul the tax laws would b venue-neutral" and would not cut es. Throughout the past year, how- r, he has urged Congress to make ier tax cuts permanent. he nonpartisan Congressional Bud- Office now sees $2.3 trillion in umulated deficits over the next 1 rs. That does not include the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. riven the choice between balanc- the budget and cutting taxes, vot- chose balancing the budget by 66 cent to 31 percent. Just over half of ublicans as well as most Democrat independents felt that way. When the choice is between balanc the budget and spending more o cation, health care and economic elopment, voters were divided. htly more wanted the additionsa nestic spending, 55 percent, than bal- ing the budget, 44 percent. Suring his second term, Bush is liked o have an opening on the Supreme art; Chief Justice William Rehnquist eriously ill with cancer. ix in 10 voters say they are comfort- that the president will nominate right kind of person to serve on the rt. Bush has sidestepped questions Lt who he would name if there were opening. ut three-fourths of; Democrats are omfortable with a potential Bust nination to the high court. I'm very worried," said Carla Mat- a Democrat and a marketing man r from the San Francisco area. "I' id that, rather than mainstream ges, Bush will appoint judges that way over on the right." ksked whether Bush should appoint .stice who will uphold or overturn Roe v. Wade decision that protected oman's right to abortions, six in 1 they want a justice who will uphold landmark ruling. he AP-Ipsos poll of 844 registered ers was taken Nov. 3 to 5 and has a 'gin of sampling error of 3.5 percent- points. Fallujah resident is cared for in a hospital in the insurgent-held city of Fallujah, Iraq, Fallujah with five air raids in 12 hours, preparing for an expected major assault on the1 Violence heigh tens before election RAQ public about the beginning of the attack in small-arms fire as it responded, wounding Fallujah, although U.S. commanders have one soldier, a statement said. Continued from page 1A said it would be his responsibility to order In a web posting, the al-Qaida affiliate :argets, and defenders fought back with the storming of the city. group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed aeavy machine gunfire. Flaming red tracer Insurgents, meanwhile, waged a second headquartered in Fallujah, claimed respon- ounds streaked through the sky from guer- day of multiple attacks across the restive sibility for the attacks on Haditha and illa positions inside the city, 40 miles west Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad, Haqlaniyah. >f Baghdad. storming police stations, assassinating gov- "In the dawn of this blessed day, the lions Before the assault began, U.S. command- ernment officials and setting off deadly car of al-Qaida in Iraq faced up to a group of ars warned troops to expect the most brutal bombs. About 60 people have been killed apostates in the proud city of Haditha," said irban fighting since the Vietnam War. and 75 injured in the two days of attacks. the statement, which could not be authenti- Underscoring the instability elsewhere At dawn, armed rebels stormed three police cated. "The lions stormed the city's police in Iraq, several heavy explosions thundered stations in Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 140 miles directorate and killed everyone there ... :hrough the capital even as government northwest of Baghdad, killing 22 policemen. With this operation, the city has been com- ;pokesman Thair Hassan al-Naqeeb was Some were lined up and shot execution-style, pletely liberated. The lions have been wan- nnouncing the state of emergency, which according to police and hospital officials. dering in the city until late today." ipplies throughout the country except for Three attacks on U.S. convoys in and The widespread insurgent attacks seemed Kurdish-ruled areas in the north. around Baghdad killed two American sol- aimed at relieving the pressure on Fallu- Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi diers and wounded five others, the military jah, where about 10,000 American troops said the state of emergency is a "very pow- said. Residents reported grenades setting - including two Marine battalions and erful message that we are serious" about police cars aflame on Haifa Street in the an Army battalion - were massed for the eining in insurgents before elections set for heart of the capital. assault. Two Iraqi brigades also stood by. Late January. "We want to secure the coun- A car bomb also exploded near the The emergency decree lays the ground- ry so elections can be done in a peaceful Baghdad home of Iraq's finance minister, work for a severe crackdown in areas where way and the Iraqi people can participate in Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a leading Shiite politi- guerrillas operate. he elections freely, without the intimida- cian. Abdel-Mahdi and his family were not Under the law, all traffic and men ion by terrorists and by forces who are try- home at the time, but the U.S. military said between the ages of 15 and 55 were banned ng to wreck the political process in Iraq," the bomb killed one Iraqi bystander and from the streets of Fallujah and surrounding ie told reporters. Allawi said nothing in wounded another. A U.S. patrol came under areas 24 hours a day. AP PHO Iraqi men survey the damage after an air strike in Fallujah, Iraq, yesterday. The Iraqi government declared a 60-day emergency yesterday in most of the country. Average fine for dealing with nations sponsoring terrorists plunged after 9-11 Militants seek release of 26 prisoners in return for three U.N. hostages WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite the Bush administration's pledge to battle terrorist financing, the government's average penalty against companies doing business with coun- tries listed as terrorist-sponsoring states fell sharply after the Sept. 11 attacks, an Associated Press analysis of federal records shows. The average penalty for a company doing t business with Iran, Iraq, Especialy i North Korea, Sudan or post 9/11 er Libya dropped nearly threefold, from more Companies a than $50,000 in the five years before the 2001 policing the attacks to about $18,700 afterward, according to a a lot more." 'r n :1 Control, or OFAC, "is committed to ensuring that U.S. entities abide by U.S. sanction laws. We are not in the business of making money." The smaller average fines could indicate that companies are making fewer large deals with terrorist countries, said Adam Pener, who advises businesses on how to avoid dealing with terrorist nations. "I would argue this is a good .te sign OFAC is doing its job," said Pener, who is the chief operating officer of the Conflict Securities re Advisory Group. "OFAC in a lot of ways is a deterrent. Espe- mselves cially in the post-9/1llera, com- panies are policing themselves a lot more." Council, which the president created by execu- tive order and whose members he selected. Grano formerly headed the U.S. subsidiary of the Swiss bank UBS AG. It paid more than $100 million in fines for trading U.S. currency to Iran and other nations and for transferring funds to Iraq during Saddam's rule. Bush renewed the ban on trade with Iran in March 2001. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Treasury Department has added hundreds of names to the list of people and businesses whose U.S. assets are frozen because of suspected links to terrorism. The department also has traced terrorist financing and seized more than $200 million in terrorist assets. OFAC is the agency that enforces U.S. restric- KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban-linked militants holding three kidnapped U.N. workers demanded yesterday the release of 26 prisoners,. some possibly in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, in return for sparing the hostages' lives. The Unite The group also said it might ease its other and the Af demands to end a crisis that has stirred fear that governmer Afghan insurgents are have been learning from their Iraqi counterparts. lipped on Ishaq Manzoor, one of . several men claiming to contact wit d Nations fghan it tight- any th the freed after a month in captivity following the release of two Taliban prisoners. Kabul denied any link and-insisted no ransom was paid. This time, the United Nations and the Afghan gov- ernment have been tight-lipped on any contact with the kid- nappers, though officials insist eign hostages during the past year, using tribal chiefs and former militant leaders for behind- the-scenes negotiations. Last November, a Turkish engineer was ,'