AP sources: Bachmann staff in New Hampshire quits (AP)

EXETER, N.H. – Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is losing her New Hampshire staff. As many as five staffers formally left Bachmann's campaign this week, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said Friday. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose internal workings of the campaign.

Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart disputed reports of a staff shakeup, saying: "We have a great team in New Hampshire. We haven't been notified that anyone's left the campaign."

Still, Stewart said that she hadn't been able to reach the top New Hampshire staff to confirm they were still on board. She said she had reached some junior staffers who didn't say they were leaving.

Campaign finance reports show that Bachmann, who has fallen in polls and struggled to raise money, had five paid staff in New Hampshire as recently as late September.

The Republican presidential contender has largely ignored the first-in-the-nation primary state in recent months. She has been focused on Iowa and South Carolina, where her social conservative message has more appeal.

Bachmann has visited New Hampshire twice since launching her presidential campaign in June, and Stewart acknowledged a greater focus on Iowa, where Bachmann was born and where she won the GOP's presidential straw poll in August.

According to Bachmann aides, her Iowa staff consists of 11 paid members, including her national political director who relocated to Iowa this fall. The staff is among the larger teams in the leadoff caucus state.

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Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

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Chris Christie sources say he still may run (The Christian Science Monitor)

Oh, dear. After issuing all but Shermanesque statements about not running for president – “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected,” as Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman put it back in 1884 – it looks like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie still may enter the rocky race for the Republican nomination.

That, at least, is what “several people close to the governor with knowledge of his thinking” tell the Associated Press.

Christie reportedly is being urged by senior establishment Republicans (including George H.W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, and Nancy Reagan) who see him as the best bet to beat President Obama in 2012. Former New York governor George Pataki has just endorsed him.

The Monitor's Weekly News Quiz for Sept. 25-30, 2011

“He’s definitely our strongest candidate in November,” US Rep. Peter King (R) of New York told the New York Post. “He’s the closest we have to putting together the old Reagan Democratic coalition.” Of course, no one close to Christie says anything definitive on the record. Who’d want to get out front of a man of Christie’s Falstaffian heft?

Speaking of which, columnists (including the Monitor’s) have felt free in recent days to comment on Christie’s ample (and perhaps unhealthy) girth as a factor in whether he’s qualified to be president. Christie himself has spoken of his weight problem.

But therea€?s been pushback to that line of thinking.

Writing in New York magazine (under the headline “Chris Christie Is Fat. So What?”) Jonathan Chait argues that “the American overclass prizes thinness to a degree that is actually unhealthy, and the disgust privileged Americans feel toward fat people, who are more likely to be poor and middle-class, dresses itself up as medical advice.”

“Why does his weight matter at all?” Chait asks. “The only real reasoning I see here is that American elites view obesity with disgust, and they’re repulsed at the notion that a very fat guy could rise to a position of symbolic leadership. It’s not a very attractive sentiment.”

Believe it or not, some see the issue as one of civil rights. The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (whose slogan is “We come in all sizes”), for example.

Peggy Howell, the organization’s public relations director, is quoted as saying, "I see it as a tactic to try and take attention away from his accomplishments and instead focus on his body size.”

"Do people have a bias against President Obama because he smokes?” she asks. “Why should there be any difference in supporting a leader who smokes cigarettes or a leader who has a little extra weight on his body? Neither are perceived to be healthy choices."

On the New York Daily News opinion page, David Swerdlick even suggests that Christie’s heftiness is a “winning trait” for many Americans.

“It's precisely because of Christie's husky stature – combined with his blunt-talking, Jersey-guy attitude – that makes him such an appealing candidate to those in the GOP who have been begging him to get in the race,” he writes. “Why? His size, style and every-guy persona are the perfect contrast to President Obama. Where Obama is slim, Christie is beefy. Obama is reflective and Christie shoots from the hip.”

No, it won’t be Christie’s weight but his less-than-tea-party background that could make it hard for him to win the GOP nomination.

Dan Amira, who writes on politics for New York magazine, has a recent article titled “Five Things Conservative Voters Would Hate About Chris Christie.”Among them:

He’s said there needs to be “a clear path to citizenship” for immigrants (what hardliners call “amnesty”).

He’s for “common sense” guns laws “to make sure that we don't have an abundance of guns out there” – the kind of position that makes National Rifle Association members double-bolt their gun cabinets.

He’s said that "climate change is real" and "human activity plays a role in these changes." (Among the declared GOP candidates, only former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman has not waffled on or denied global warming.)

New Jersey under Christie’s leadership is participating in the Race to the Top federal education program, and he’s called Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan “a great ally to try to reform education for kids across America … an extraordinary leader on this issue.” (Most of the declared GOP candidates would can Race to the Top.)

While most conservatives were decrying plans for an Islamic mosque and cultural center near 9/11’s ground zero, Christie said both supporters and critics were using it as a political football.

So if Christie does get into the race, it won’t be his physical size but the nature and dimension of his record that tips the political scale.

The Monitor's Weekly News Quiz for Sept. 25-30, 2011

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AP sources: No sign of US entry for terror plot (AP)

WASHINGTON – Senior U.S. officials say there's no evidence that anyone linked to al-Qaida has entered the country to carry out an attack on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The officials insisted on anonymity to discuss the investigation.

Police and FBI agents remain on alert as investigators look for proof of a plot against Washington or New York.

Since late Wednesday, counterterrorism officials have chased a tip that al-Qaida may have sent three men to detonate a car bomb. At least two of those men could be U.S. citizens.

By Saturday, there was still no intelligence backing that up and officials continued to question the validity of the initial tip.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Al-Qaida may have sent American terrorists or men carrying U.S. travel documents to launch an attack on Washington or New York to coincide with memorials marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, government officials say.

One U.S. official says al-Qaida dispatched three men, at least two of whom could be U.S. citizens, to detonate a car bomb in one of the cities. Should that mission prove impossible, the attackers have been told to simply cause as much destruction as they can. But U.S. intelligence officials say they have no evidence there is anyone inside the United States tied to the plot.

Although the initial tip suggested terrorists, including U.S. citizens, may be traveling to the country, that remains unconfirmed.

Word that al-Qaida had ordered the mission reached U.S. officials midweek. A CIA informant who has proved reliable in the past approached intelligence officials overseas to say that the men had been ordered by newly minted al-Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahri to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Sunday by doing harm on U.S. soil.

The tipster says the would-be attackers are of Arab descent and may speak Arabic as well as English. Counterterrorism officials were looking for certain names associated with the threat, but it was unclear whether the names were real or fake.

Intelligence analysts have looked at travel patterns and behaviors of people entering the country recently. And while they have singled out a few people for additional scrutiny, none has shown any involvement in a plot.

Counterterrorism officials have been working around the clock to determine whether the threat is accurate, but so far, have been unable to corroborate it, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

In the meantime, extra security was put in place to protect the people in the two cities that took the brunt of the jetliner attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a decade ago. It was the worst terror assault in the nation's history, and al-Qaida has long dreamed of striking again to mark the anniversary. But it could be weeks before the intelligence community can say whether this particular threat is real.

Undaunted by talk of a new terror threat, New Yorkers and Washingtonians wove among police armed with assault rifles and waited with varying degrees of patience at security checkpoints.

"We're watching," James McJunkin, FBI assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, said Saturday. "We expect we're going to get an increase in threats and investigative activity around high-profile dates and events. He added: "This is a routine response for us. It's routine because it's muscle memory."

For months, the FBI had planned to increase staffing around the anniversary and police knew they were going to be out in force in Washington, he said.

In New York on Friday, security worker Eric Martinez wore a pin depicting the twin towers on his lapel as he headed to work in lower Manhattan where he also worked 10 years ago when the towers came down. "If you're going to be afraid, you're just going to stay home," he said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, too, made a point of taking the subway to City Hall.

Briefed on the threat Friday morning, President Barack Obama instructed his security team to take "all necessary precautions," the White House said. Obama still planned to travel to New York on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary with stops that day at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa.

Washington commuters were well aware of the terror talk.

Cheryl Francis, of Chantilly, Va., said she travels over the Roosevelt bridge into Washington every day and doesn't plan to change her habits. Francis, who was in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, said a decade later the country is more aware and alert.

"It's almost like sleeping with one eye open," she said, but she added that people need to continue living their lives.

The intelligence community regularly receives tips and information of this nature. But the timing of this particular threat had officials especially concerned, because it was the first "active plot" that came to light as the country marked the significant anniversary, a moment that was also significant to al-Qaida, according to information gleaned in May from Osama bin Laden's compound.

The U.S. government has long known that terrorists see the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and other uniquely American dates as opportunities to strike. Officials have also been concerned that some may see this anniversary as an opportunity to avenge bin Laden's death.

Britain, meanwhile, warned its citizens who are traveling to the U.S. that there was a potential for new terror attacks that could include "places frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers."

Acutely aware of these factors, law enforcement around the country had already increased security measures at airports, nuclear plants, train stations and more in the weeks leading up to Sept. 11. The latest threat, potentially targeting New York or Washington, prompted an even greater security surge in those cities. U.S. embassies and consulates abroad had also boosted their vigilance in preparation for the anniversary.

At Penn Station in New York, transit authority police carried assault rifles and wore helmets and bullet proof vests as they watched crowds of commuters. Police searched passengers' bags as they entered the subway, and National Guard troops in camouflage fatigues moved among riders, eyeing packages.

In Washington, Police Chief Cathy Lanier warned that unattended cars parked in suspicious locations or near critical buildings and structures would be towed.

Speaking in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was "a specific, credible but unconfirmed report that al-Qaida, again, is seeking to harm Americans and in particular, to target New York and Washington."

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Christopher Hawley, Colleen Long and Samantha Gross in New York, Ben Feller, Jessica Grescko, Matthew Lee, and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Kimberly Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier and Eileen Sullivan at http://twitter.com/esullivanap

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HP nears PC spinoff, $10 billion Autonomy buy: sources (Reuters)

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Hewlett-Packard Co is close to a deal to buy British software company Autonomy for $10 billion and will announce on Thursday a long-rumored spinoff of its PC division, the world's largest, two sources familiar with the company's plans said.

Shares in HP, a storied Silicon Valley icon that dominates the personal computing industry, reversed course to gain more than 3 percent when the news was first reported by Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources. But the stock quickly backtracked and was down more than 4 percent at $30 in afternoon trade.

A spinoff of HP's PC arm would confirm speculation that has swirled for months that HP was no longer keen on keeping a business struggling with low growth and single-digit margins.

The company plans to announce the spinoff after the market's close, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

HP and Autonomy were not available for comment.

HP Chief Executive Leo Apotheker, a former chief of European software giant SAP AG, had been expected to drive an expansion of the company's relatively small but very profitable software division -- including through major acquisitions.

Cambridge-based Autonomy counts Procter & Gamble Co among a long list of major corporate customers that use its software to search and organize unstructured data like emails. Last month, it posted a 16 percent jump in quarterly sales-driven demand for Internet-based cloud computing.

(Additional reporting by Victoria Howley in London and Edwin Chan in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Richard Chang)

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Apple, Qualcomm, others eye InterDigital: sources (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc, Nokia and Qualcomm Inc are among several technology companies pondering bids for InterDigital Inc, sources familiar with the situation said.

The auction of the wireless telecoms specialist -- expected to be heavily contested as tech giants fight to shore up patent portfolios -- will be postponed from next week to after Labor Day, the sources said.

Google Inc has not formally withdrawn from the auction but it is unclear whether the Internet giant will bid for the company, the sources told Reuters.

Shares in Interdigital, which has a market value of about $3 billion, leapt as much as 12.2 percent on the news. But it quickly backtracked and was up 7 percent at $68.70 in early afternoon trade.

InterDigital is up for sale and is forging ahead with its auction, despite key potential bidder Google agreeing to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings for $12.5 billion. That triggered a 23 percent drop in InterDigital's shares that day.

First-round bids have been postponed as bidders asked for more time to complete due diligence on the company's patents, sources said.

To make up for that delay, the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based company expects to accelerate the second round, the sources said.

Google's presence in the auction is crucial to how much InterDigital can fetch, an analyst said.

Strategically, if Google is not seen as a counter bidder in the auction, this will give prospective buyers a reason not to go aggressive, one source close to the matter said.

"The problem InterDigital has is that Elvis has left the building. He's got his date," Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff said, referring to Google.

Modoff also questioned whether any other technology companies need InterDigital enough to pay the high price at which its shares are currently trading.

He noted that Qualcomm already has a good portfolio of patents, and so may not want to pay up for the business.

"The problem is finding somebody else to whom it's necessary." Modoff said. "It could get acquired but not at where the stock is at (now)."

InterDigital declined to comment. The other potential bidders were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Nadia Damouni; editing by John Wallace and Gunna Dickson)

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