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Obama to Congress: Pass stimulus, don't play games
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-10 12:51

An estimated 33,000 US troops currently are in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon is expected to almost double that presence. So just as Obama is planning to pull troops out of Iraq, he is sending more into Afghanistan.

"I do not have a timetable for how long that's going to take," he said. "What I know is I'm not going to allow al-Qaida and (Osama) bin Laden to operate with impunity, planning attacks."

US President Barack Obama takes a question as he addresses his first news conference as president in the East Room of the White House in Washington, February 9, 2009. [Agencies]

On other points Obama:

- Called Alex Rodriguez' admission that he used steroids "depressing news" that tarnishes an entire era of Major League baseball. The All-Star third baseman with the New York Yankees told ESPN on Monday he used banned substances while playing with the Texas Rangers from 2001-03.

- Suggested it was unlikely his administration would seek to prosecute anyone involved in harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects. "Generally speaking, I am more interested in looking forward than in looking backward," he said.

- Said Pakistan has not provided "the kind of concerted effort to root out those safe havens" used by al-Qaida in its lawless, mountainous border region near Afghanistan.