In addition to that OTHER interview on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" today, former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman made some news on the program, saying he disagrees with some of Mitt Romney's statements on China.

Mitchell: You support Romney. Romney bashes Obama today in op-ed piece on China-is Mitt Romney wrong?

Huntsman: Well, let's just say that it's not unusual for candidates to be saying certain things about China. I've seen a lot of candidates who later became president who use a lot of rhetoric. It's much easier to talk about China in terms of the fear factor than the opportunity factor. Uh, I would disagree with some of what Gov. Romney has said and it's not surprising that Republicans disagree with each other from time to time. 

Mitchell: But why support him then?

Huntsman: Well, you're going to disagree on the issues from time to time. I happen to think that on the economy he's best placed to do what needs to be done in terms of economic development and the creation of jobs. When it comes to China, I think it's wrongheaded when you talk about slapping a tariff on Day 1.

Mitchell: What about those who say anything to play to audiences and then they have to live with it -- which leads to bad foreign policy choices. What would be your advice to Mitt Romney, Obama, or Rick Santorum?

Huntsman: Less pandering -- take a step back and analyze with a clear vision. The most complicated, the most challenging, and the most important bilateral relationship we have in the 21st century.  It's not going to be based on sound bites, it's not going to be based on short-term fixes and solutions-it is a long-term play between our people.

There are lots of photos attached to stories today about Obama’s housing policy event yesterday with him holding up his one-page mortgage application form. (Here, here, here.)

Bloomberg/Business Week: “Obama Uses Housing as Foil to Romney’s ‘Hit Bottom’ Strategy.” “Opponents said the president’s plan, announced yesterday, was as much about politics as the policy goal of easing access to refinancing for homeowners with negative equity. It helps the White House frame differences with Republican presidential candidates and with Congress, which for two straight years has rejected a bank tax that he said would be used to finance the program.”

National Journal: “President Obama’s housing proposal reflects campaign strategy more than a viable policy agenda, as the administration tries to flip the struggling housing market from economic liability to political asset with a long-shot plan that Chicago can argue is better than the GOP alternative: no plan at all.”

The Washington Post: “The United States hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan by the middle of next year, more than a year earlier than scheduled, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday. His remarks reflected a growing sentiment within the Obama administration that its approach to Iraq, where the official end of U.S. combat operations came 16 months before the final U.S. troop withdrawal in December, may provide a useful model for winding down operations in Afghanistan.”

“President Barack Obama attends the National Prayer Breakfast this morning in Washington, along with the first lady and Vice President Joe Biden,” the AP writes.

President Obama today met with Jordan's King Abdullah II, and both leaders reaffirmed their calls for Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad to step down. 

Speaking after their meeting Mr. Obama said, “We will continue to consult very closely with Jordan to create the kind of international pressure and environment that encourages the current Syrian regime to step aside, so that a more democratic process of transition can take place inside of Syria.”  

The president also praised King Abdullah for being “the first Arab leader to publicly call on President Assad to step down in the face of terrible brutality.”

Also Tuesday, senior White House officials announced there are strong signs that Iran is supplying weapons to Syria. According to National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, a recent visit by a ranking official within Iran’s elite Quds force, Commander Ghassem Soleimani, provides evidence of high-level cooperation between the countries.

In a statement Vietor said, “Assad is running out of money to continue financing his crackdown and has turned to Syria's only ally left -- Iran -- for help, as evidenced by IRGC-Quds Force Commander Soleimani's recent visit to Damascus.” 

The White House has long believed that Iran was aiding Syria in the crackdown on its own citizens.

The United Nations estimates as many as 5,000 people have been killed since mass protests began in Syria last March. The United States and several other countries have called on Assad to step down, but so far he has shown no signs of heeding their calls. 
Tensions are also mounting between the United States and Iran after the U.S. imposed stiffer sanctions and after Iran threatened to close down the Strait of Hormuz, which is used to transport about a fifth of the world’s oil.

President Obama said that he and King Abdullah discussed Iran, but did not go into any detail nor did he answer questions about Iran shouted by reporters.

The New York Times: “The escalating American confrontation with Iran poses a major new political threat to President Obama as he heads into his campaign for re-election, presenting him with choices that could harm either the economic recovery or his image as a firm leader. Sanctions against Iran’s oil exports that the president signed into law on New Year’s Eve started a fateful clock ticking. In late June, when the campaign is in full swing, Mr. Obama will have to decide whether to take action against countries, including some staunch allies, if they continue to buy Iranian oil through its central bank.”

Obama will once against deliver his acceptance speech outside, the Charlotte Observer reports: “Convention officials are expected to announce the venue this morning at a news conference at the stadium. … The move to the Carolina Panthers' 74,000-seat stadium would replicate the 2008 convention, where Obama accepted the nomination at a packed Invesco Field in Denver.” The speech would be open “to the public,” and “is designed to help mobilize voters in North Carolina, a key swing state. Two Democratic sources, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the information, said the stadium move is just one change that will be announced this morning.”

“It’s Obama-time at the Apollo,” the New York Post writes. “Obama will be serenaded by Al Green and India.Arie, along with Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda, during a fund-raising concert Thursday night at the landmark Harlem theater. Tickets run from $100 to $5,000. It’s the second time Obama has held a campaign event at the Apollo. The previous event took place on Nov. 29, 2007, as he battled Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Film director Spike Lee will host a separate fund-raiser for Obama’s re-election bid, at his Upper East Side brownstone. Tickets are $38,500 per person. A third fund-raising event, hosted by leaders in the Jewish community, will be held at Daniel restaurant.”

Senior U.S. officials say they are deeply concerned by reports of the seizure of smuggled radioactive material heading into Tehran and commend the Russian security services for seizing the material.

That said, an early read by U.S. intelligence is that the main purpose of this isotope, Sodium-22, is for medical diagnostics. It's used for radiation therapy -- and officials say the materials can be bought legally, so it does not have implications for suspected weapons development.

"We don't know whether the receipient was a government agency," one agency said. "It's unclear why they would want to smuggle it in; we are still investigating, but it does not appear that this involves Iran's nuclear program."

The U.S. Navy today announced the largest government purchase of "drop-in" biofuel, a green energy replacement for diesel fuel in ships and jets that will be used during a major naval exercise next summer in the Pacific.

Navy Secretary Ray Maybus says the $12 million purchase of 450,000 gallons of biofuel will power aircraft and ships deployed for the Rim of the Pacific exercise (RIMPAC), the world's largest maritime exercise held every two years.

It's all part of a "Green Fleet" demonstration, he says, to prove the viability of a 50-50 blend of biofuels and diesel as "a very viable concept."

Maybus says the Navy's goal is to use a similar biofuel blend to deploy and power a carrier strike group on a multi-month deployment by 2016. 

Maybus made today's announcement on a conference call with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack as part of the administration's push to greater utilize biofuel technology in military and commercial transportation.

This biofuel purchase by the Defense Logistics Agency, however, is only a drop in the bucket for the U.S. Navy, which uses more than 1.26 billion gallons of fuel each year.

But both Maybus and Vilsack argue it's an important step in making the nation more energy independent.

"The use of fossil fuels is a real threat to national security, and the Navy's ability to protect the nation," Maybus said.

Maybus and Vilsack also touted the jobs created in the farming and biofuel industry as the U.S. government increases its reliance on green fuel technology.

According to Maybus, the department did not have to ask for additional money for the project, since the funds came from the normal course of business of Navy research and development.

Vice President Joe Biden today made a surprise visit to Baghdad, Iraq -- in advance of the full American troop withdrawal that is expected to happen next month. This is Biden’s eighth trip to Iraq since becoming vice president. 

According to the White House, while in Iraq, Biden will speak at “an event to commemorate the sacrifices and accomplishments of U.S. and Iraqi troops."

He will also meet with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, and other political leaders as well as co-chair a meeting of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee.

Last month President Obama confirmed that the United States would remove all troops from Iraq by the end of the year, keeping with a bilateral agreement that was signed by President George W. Bush before he left office.

Is it legal for the federal government to kill a U.S. citizen overseas, someone who has never been charged or convicted of a crime? Civil liberties groups are condemning the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, but many legal scholars say it is fully justified.

No U.S. court has ever weighed in on the question, because judges consider these sorts of issues exclusively matters for the president. 

Anwar al-Awlaki's father, Nasser, with the help of the ACLU, sued President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and CIA Director Leon Panetta a year ago, when it became clear that the U.S. was targeting al-Awlaki. But Judge John Bates threw the case out, ruling that federal courts were in no position to evaluate whether someone was a terrorist whose activities threatened national security and against whom deadly force could be justified.

The ACLU lawyer who handled the case, Jameel Jaffer, said Friday the killing of al-Awlaki was a violation of both U.S. and international law.

"The government's authority to use lethal force against its own citizens should be limited to circumstances in which the threat to life is concrete, specific and imminent," Jaffer said. "It is a mistake to invest the president, any president, with the unreviewable power to kill any American whom he deems to present a threat to the country."

But Kenneth Anderson, an international law scholar at American University's Washington College of Law, said U.S. citizens, who take up arms with an enemy force, have been considered legitimate targets through two world wars, even if they are outside what is traditionally considered the battlefield.

"Where hostiles go, there is the possibility of hostilities," Anderson said. "The U.S. has never accepted the proposition that if you leave the active battlefield, suddenly you are no longer targetable."

Robert Chesney, an expert on international law at the University of Texas School of law, concluded in a recently written law review article that al-Awlaki could be legally killed "if he is in fact an operational leader within AQAP, as this role would render him a functional combatant in an organized armed group."

While peaceful anti-government protests continue to be repressed by Syrian security forces, anti-American mobs wreaked havoc on the U.S. embassy in Damascus yesterday. Syria reportedly “refused” to protect the embassy from the attacks, which were encouraged by a pro-government television station. Now, the Obama administration is responding with its harshest rhetoric yet towards President Bashar al-Assad and his regime.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton condemned the attacks and said Assad has “lost legitimacy” in failing to fulfill his promises of democratic reform. Her comments reflect what has become a harsh U.S. assault on Assad, whose security forces have responded to the Arab Spring-inspired pro-democracy movement with an increasingly brutal crackdown.

“It’s clear based on the Secretary of State’s statements that American policy on Syria has evolved over the course of the last few months,” said Steven Cook, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “In March, the administration called Assad a reformer and obviously, as of yesterday, he’s no longer considered indispensable to Syria’s future. I think that’s overall a good thing that we’ve moved in that direction.”

The attacks included both vandalism of the U.S. embassy and the U.S. ambassador’s residence and an attempted attack on the French embassy, in which three French officials were injured. The Obama administration will request that the Syrian government reimburse it for the damage caused to the U.S. embassy.

Meanwhile, as the U.S. military prepares for an Afghanistan drawdown, a political assassination may reveal that Afghan officials are not as safe as they once were. Today, the half-brother of Afghan President Harmid Karzai was shot and killed by one of his trusted bodyguards. Ahmed Wali Karzai, widely regarded as a key power broker in southern Afghanistan and called the “number one man in Kandahar,” was meeting with tribal leaders in his heavily-fortified compound in Kandahar province when the killing occurred.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the killing, which occurred when Sardar Mohammed – the assassin – arrived at Karzai’s compound and requested a private discussion with Karzai. After the two entered another room, three gunshots sounded and the deputy provincial council chief rushed in to find Karzai shot dead. Karzai’s other guards then entered the room and shot and killed Mohammed.

The political fallout of Karzai’s death will surely be felt in Afghanistan. In recent years, Karzai had been extending his influence in Kandahar, the strategic base of the Taliban, and the U.S. has come to see his influence as necessary for the stability of the area. He also framed himself as a potential ally in the NATO-led efforts to stabilize the region. Karzai’s death may foreshadow further political tumult as the U.S. executes Obama’s plan to reduce troops by thirty thousand in the next year.

The current CIA Director and Obama's nominee to be the next Secretary of Defense told senators today that he has "every confidence" that the Iraqis will ask the U.S. to maintain a presence in Iraq beyond the December 2011 deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal.

Asked whether the U.S. is on track to draw down troops from Iraq at the end of the year, Leon Panetta told Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), "It's clear to me that Iraq is considering the possibility of making a request for some kind of presence to remain there."

Panetta said that he has "every confidence" that a request like that is "forthcoming at some point."

Speaking toward the end of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta added that the Iraqi prime minister and leadership would have to present the U.S. with what they need and on what timeline.

It's only a matter of time before Libyan leader Muammar Khaddafy steps down and there will be strong German support for the country at that time, President Obama said Tuesday during a press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany abstained from the United Nations Security Council vote to authorize force to establish a no-fly zone and protect Libyan civilians, but both leaders played down their differences on the issue today. Obama said the NATO operation in Libya was fully integrated and that German personnel were actively involved in their NATO role. He also said the country was doing more in Afghanistan.

"Germany has stepped up and taken additional responsibilities in Afghanistan that have freed up resources for us to be able to conduct our operations in Libya," Obama told journalists assembled in the East Room. "We did discuss last night Germany's role and there is going be a lot more work to do when Khaddafy does step down in terms of getting the Libyan people back on their feet -- economic, political work that's gonna have to be done and my expectation is gonna be that there will be full and robust German support."

At the welcome ceremony on the South Lawn this morning, the two leaders spoke of the strong partnership between the United States and Germany and about working together on the mission in Afghanistan, in the fight against terrorism and nuclear proliferation -- especially in countries like Iran -- and about their support for struggle for freedom in North Africa and peace in the Middle East. The pair discussed these issues during their Oval Office meeting this morning.

"I believe this is our 10th meeting together -- that doesn't include the many phone calls, videoconferences we seem to have at all hours of the day," Obama told reporters at the press conference. "There's hardly any global issue where we don't consult one another."

On the Middle East, Obama said the two countries agreed that unilateral actions, like Palestinians seeking a vote on statehood at the UN General Assembly "should be avoided."

Last night, Obama and the chancellor dined privately in Georgetown and, tonight, the president and first lady will host a State Dinner for Merkel -- their first for a European leader.

A U.S. official confirms that Special Envoy to the Middle East, former Sen. George Mitchell, will announce his resignation today.

The official would not say why he is stepping down, on that the White House will make the announcement later today.

Interestingly, Middle East policy will be in focus next week. The president is expected to make a speech on it and Jordan's King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are slated to be meeting with President Obama at the White House.