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Obama's Pick to Lead Afghan War Linked to Abuse of Prisoners & Secret Assassination Unit

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Marc Garlasco, Tom Engelhardt - Jun. 08 (News Report) - he oversaw a secretive program to hunt down and assassinate suspected terrorists around the globe. Last year, lawmakers delayed Stanley McChrystal’s nomination for a key position because of questions about prisoner abuse by forces under his command. Many of the reports of abuse center on Camp Nama, a US base near Baghdad’s airport where Special Operations troops ran an interrogation and detention center.

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Lebanon's American-Backed Government Holds on to Power

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Time - By Andrew Lee Butters - Jun. 08 (News Report) - The full results aren't yet official, but it appears that Lebanon's American-backed ruling coalition maintained its majority in parliament after the country voted in record numbers yesterday.

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Leftover Policies Pose a Challenge to Obama's Cairo Message

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Byard Duncan - Jun. 08 (Opinion) - absent from Obama's comments was the promise to address existing policies of exceptionalism and hostility that continue to rot American foreign policy from the inside out. Without a recognition and serious reconsideration of these practices, the current administration has little chance of making tangible the changes it spent much of the last year promising.

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Two Colombian Generals Face Charges

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Sherwood Ross - Jun. 08 (News Report) - Two Colombian generals, both of whom received training at the U.S. Army's "School of The Americas"(SOA) at Ft. Benning, Ga., have been accused by authorities there of crimes involving narcotics and collaborating with criminal paramilitary groups, according to a report in the June 15th issue of The Nation magazine.

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ABC News' interview with Lakhdar Boumediene and our current policies

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Jun. 08 (News Report) - Lakhdar Boumediene is an Algerian (and Bosnian citizen) who, while living in Bosnia and working for the International Red Crescent, was arrested by the Bosnian government (at the behest of the Bush administration) shortly after 9/11 on charges of plotting to blow up a U.S. and British embassy, but was then quickly cleared by Bosnian courts of any wrongdoing and ordered released. But as he was about to be released -- in January, 2002 -- he was abducted by the U.S. military inside Bosnia and shipped to Guantanamo, where he remained without charges for the next almost 8 years, and was clearly tortured.

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Global Weapons Spending Hits Record Levels

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Richard Norton-Taylor - Jun. 08 (News Report) - Worldwide spending on weapons has reached record levels amounting to well over $1tn last year, a leading research organisation reported today. Global military expenditure has risen by 45% over the past decade to $1.46tn, according to the latest annual Yearbook on Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). Though the US accounts for more than half the total increase, China and Russia nearly tripled their military expenditure over the decade, with China now second only to the US in the military expenditure league table.

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Hamas Letter to Obama

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Dr. Ahmed Yousef - Jun. 08 (News Report) - We in the Hamas Government are committed to pursuing a just resolution to the conflict not in contradiction with the international community and enlightened opinion as expressed in the International Court of Justice, the United Nations General Assembly, and leading human rights organizations. We are prepared to engage all parties on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions.

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President Obama's Speeches in Cairo, France Set a High Bar for Results

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Jonathan Weisman, Laura Meckler - Jun. 08 (News Report) - President Barack Obama returned home from abroad Sunday to find that his own oratory laying out an ever-more-ambitious agenda, both in foreign and domestic policy, is ratcheting up demands for concrete achievements.

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Pakistani Editorialists Respond to Obama

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - Jun. 07 (News Report) - The USG Open Source Center translates Pakistani editorials from the Urdu press reacting to President Obama's address in Cairo to the Muslim world.

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Obama’s Cairo Speech - Forceful Words and Fateful Realities

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Rod Nordland - Jun. 07 (News Analysis) - Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo last Thursday was “soft spoken and eloquent,” said Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Iraqi cleric, grudgingly, since he also said he despised it. It was a speech that meant different things to different people, a quality that has been much noted in this president. He supported Israel, but reached out to the Muslim world in an unprecedented way. Some friends were troubled, others reassured. Some of America’s enemies denounced it, but none dismissed it. Not even the arch-enemies at whom, in some important way, the speech was directed.

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Evidence Suggests Obama's Speech Already Undercutting Extremists

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Karin Laub, other AP reporters - Jun. 07 (News Report) - Obama may have managed to "plant the seed of doubt in some minds" of extremists, said Robert Malley, senior analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank. "There was enough ... that represented openings for those who wanted openings."

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Clinton: Obama Has Passed '3AM' Test

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Jun. 07 (News Report) - It's been fifteen months since Hillary Clinton charged that Barack Obama lacked the chops to handle a crisis phone call at 3 A.M. And the two have gone from bitter electoral rivals to partners in foreign policy. On Sunday, Clinton revisited that defining attack affirming that Obama could answer that early morning call. "Absolutely," the Secretary of State told ABC's "This Week." "And, you know, the president in his public actions and demeanor, and certainly in private with me and with the national security team, has been strong, thoughtful, decisive. I think he is doing a terrific job."

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Hillary's New Crusade

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Daily Beast - By Michelle Goldberg - Jun. 07 (Opinion) - A year ago today, Hillary Clinton ended her presidential campaign—to the relief of many. But even her critics must admit that as secretary of State, she’s been a feminist hero to behold. One year ago today, Hillary Clinton ended her presidential campaign, much to the relief of millions of ardent Barack Obama supporters like me. Throughout the primaries, I had been irritated and then outraged by those who argued feminism obliged women to back her. The possibility that our first female president would be a former first lady promising to continue her husband’s legacy struck me as profoundly dispiriting. During the campaign, her hardball tactics horrified me. So when she made her rousing and gracious speech in the National Building Museum, conceding defeat but celebrating "18 million cracks" in "that highest, hardest glass ceiling," I was too furious to really hear her.

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Iran Listens as Obama Speaks

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Cameron Abadi - Jun. 06 (Special Report) - The U.S. president's speech clashed with a day of mourning for the late Ayatollah Khomeini. But many Iranians found a way to listen.

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Can the U.S. Contain Iran's Nuclear Ambitions?

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Time - By Massimo Calabresi - Jun. 06 (Special Report) - The U.S. has never been good at making sense of Tehran's knotty power structure, and the distrust is mutual: many in Iran suspect that the U.S. is looking for an excuse to attack their nation, as it did Iraq.

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North Korea: How to Deal With Dictator Kim Jong-il

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Robert Joseph - Jun. 06 (Opinion) - Holding out the prospect of “further isolating” Pyongyang and calling for a return to the diplomatic table must be music to the ears of the ailing Dear Leader who wants nothing more than to be thrown in that briar patch. This may be particularly important as the uncertain succession drama continues in North Korea. Kim Jong-il understands that the very survival or his regime, particularly as it transitions to his young heir, is dependent on his country being isolated.

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Using New Language, President Shows Understanding for Both Sides in Middle East

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Glenn Kessler, Jacqueline L. Salmon - Jun. 05 (News Analysis) - There was no mention of "terrorists" or "terrorism," just "violent extremists." There was the suggestion that Israeli settlements are illegitimate and the assertion that the Palestinians "have suffered in pursuit of a homeland." There were frequent references to the "Holy Koran" and echoes of Muslim phrases.

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Speech stirs mixed feelings

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Aljazeera - Jun. 05 (News Report) - Arab intellectuals remain unsurprisingly split over the speech by Barak Obama to the Islamic world. While some consider it as bold, historic and an opening of a new chapter in US relations with the Islamic world, others simply see it as evasive and lacking substance.

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In Obama's speech, a new approach to Middle East: candor

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - By Peter Grier - Jun. 05 (News Report) - Did President Obama in his Cairo speech signal a new toughness towards the Arab-Israeli peace process? Past presidents have opposed Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In Cairo, Mr. Obama said plainly that the US will not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity.

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Can A New President Make A New World?

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Ron Elving - Jun. 05 (Opinion) - In his effort to reach out to the Muslim world from a lectern in Cairo, President Obama relied on the stark differences separating him from former president George W. Bush. This was at once the underlying strength of the speech, and its ultimate weakness. Those who heard the speech, or who will hear of it, cannot fail to note the change of regime. For the Muslim world, and others disenchanted with the previous American president, nothing could be more welcome.

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Obama’s Speech a Start to Repairing Muslim Relations

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Michael Hirsch - Jun. 05 (Opinion) - as Obama himself seemed to acknowledge, his speech won't have a shelf life of more than a few days unless it is accompanied by real policy changes. There have been some signs of that, notably the administration's stark rhetoric toward Israel about freezing West Bank settlements and the president's commitment to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. But this is really only the beginning. For if Obama's outreach is ever to amount to anything more than swiftly forgotten words, he needs to begin to roll back nearly a century's worth of Arab-Western history.

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U.S. moves to ease tensions with Israel after Obama's Cairo speech

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Haaretz - By Barak Ravid - Jun. 05 (Special Report) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly commended Obama's speech in a statement issued by his bureau. In private conversations, however, he expressed disappointment at what he saw as a soft stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

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Cairo University Preps for Obama

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - Jun. 04 (News Analysis) - Cairo University is prepping for President Barack Obama's historic visit. Old and cracked roads are being repaved and workers have been busy mowing the lawns and planting new shrubs and flowers. Initially, Obama was scheduled to speak at the world's oldest university, Al Azhar, built almost a thousand years ago. However, for security reasons, Cairo University was chosen.

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Obama's speech in Cairo: Are Muslims convinced?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Jeffrey Fleishman - Jun. 04 (News Analysis) - Cairo -- He came. He spoke. But did he convince? President Obama's long-anticipated speech to the Arab world today sought to dissolve the mistrust between Islam and the West by highlighting his personal appeal as he urged ending intolerance and violence and moving toward a shared future. It was a carefully textured blend of history, the president's personal experience with Islam and the need to quell religious extremism.

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Bin Laden's Problem: Obama IS the Message to the Muslim World

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite - Jun. 04 (Opinion) - I made no headway in convincing this Turkish Muslim that President Obama is a devout Christian. I had plenty of time to make my case; Istanbul traffic is appalling. But over an hour, I was struck by the stunned admiration of this one Muslim for the United States. I am certain he is not the only one. Gallup polls show I'm right.

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