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Afghan Mission Murky As Troop Deployment Looms

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

All Things Considered - By Mary Louise Kelly - Feb. 23 (News Analysis) - President Obama has announced he's sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but he hasn't yet announced what his overall strategy for the country will be. Obama says he wants to hear first from all his advisers and military commanders, but there are also the views of U.S. allies to consider. And that's a long list, making coordinating all the international efforts in Afghanistan a massive problem in itself.

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$900 Million From U.S. To Gaza: Is The Administration Nuts?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Marty Peretz - Feb. 23 (Opinion) - The real issue is: where will the cash go? The administration is assuring us that it will not go to Hamas, as if anyone can assure that materiel and money can be siphoned off just to the desired parties. This, frankly, is a joke...and Mrs. Clinton knows it. So should President Obama.

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Obama's Iran strategy

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles Times - By Doyle McManus - Feb. 22 (News Analysis) - President Obama is working against time to untangle 30 years of enmity and prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb, but even his own advisors know the chance of success is slim. So they also have been working on Plan B: What do we do if Iran gets the bomb? Today, the Obama administration is debating its Iran policy behind closed doors. Last year, however, four of its key appointees wrote about the issue as private citizens, and their writings suggest they are already planning for how to handle a nuclear Iran.

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U.S., China Agree to Focus on Economy, Climate

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Glenn Kessler - Feb. 22 (News Report) - China and the United States agreed Saturday to begin high-level consultations on combating the global economic crisis and climate change, with China's poor human rights record relegated as a lesser priority. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton held extensive talks with a panoply of Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, and toured a new low-emissions power plant using General Electric technology to highlight the Obama administration's determination to form a partnership with China on reducing harmful emissions.

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A Quieter Approach to Spreading Democracy Abroad

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Peter Baker - Feb. 22 (News Analysis) - Fresh from orchestrating a historic victory, President Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, headed to the remote seaside town of Baku for a lucrative speech. For Mr. Plouffe, it was a chance to pocket an easy $50,000. But for the authoritarian government of Azerbaijan, it was a chance to burnish the reputation of a harsh system headed by the son of a K.G.B. general.An outcry forced Mr. Plouffe to donate the cash to pro-democracy groups in the former Soviet Union, but to some policy experts it spotlighted a shift in American attitudes toward advancing the cause of democracy abroad. Mr. Plouffe did not intend to give succor to a despot, friends said, but evidently did not think to determine whether the supposed civic group forking over the money had ties to an anti-democratic regime.

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Al-Qaeda founder launches fierce attack on Osama bin Laden

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Telegraph - By David Blair - Feb. 22 (News Report) - Twenty years ago, Dr Fadl became al-Qaeda's intellectual figurehead with a crucial book setting out the rationale for global jihad against the West. Today, however, he believes the murder of innocent people is both contrary to Islam and a strategic error. "Every drop of blood that was shed or is being shed in Afghanistan and Iraq is the responsibility of bin Laden and Zawahiri and their followers," writes Dr Fadl.

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State of War

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Foreign Policy - By Sam Quinones - Feb. 21 (Special Report) - I’ve traveled through most of Mexico’s 31 states. I’ve written two books about the country. And yet I now struggle to recognize the place. Mexico is wracked by a criminal-capitalist insurgency. It is fighting for its life. And most Americans seem to have no idea what’s happening right next door.

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In Canada, Obama gets warm welcome – and tips on managing an economy

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Susan Bourette - Feb. 21 (News Report) - For his first foreign visit as president, Barack Obama chose a country where no major banks have failed, home foreclosures pale by comparison with those in the United States, corporate and consumer debt is low, and citizens enjoy universal health care.

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Taliban and Pakistan officials agree permanent ceasefire in Swat valley

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Jason Burke - Feb. 21 (News Report) - Western governments, and many Pakistanis, have been alarmed by the provincial government's offer to reinstate Islamic sharia law in Malakand if the Taliban agreed to peace.

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Hillary Clinton uses China visit to seek consensus on tackling global economic woes

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Tania Branigan - Feb. 21 (News Report) - The United States and China could help lead a global economic recovery by working together, Hillary Clinton told a press conference in Beijing this morning. The US secretary of state has vowed to use her visit to increase co-operation between the two countries, but she has been criticised by campaigners for saying that disagreements over human rights, Taiwan and Tibet should not interfere with making progress on the economy, climate change and security issues.

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Netanyahu to form Israel cabinet

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

BBC News - Feb. 21 (News Report) - Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-of-centre Likud party, has been asked to form Israel's next government. Mr Netanyahu said Israel faced "great challenges" including the global economic crisis and what he said was Iran's wish to obtain nuclear weapons.

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Ecuador says expelled U.S. official was CIA operative

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Reuters - By Alonso Soto - Feb. 21 (News Report) - Correa, a leftist ally of U.S. foe Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, expelled Mark Sullivan over charges he tried to handpick an officer heading a police unit partly financed by the United States. "Lets speak bluntly; he was the head of the CIA in Ecuador," Correa said. "The U.S. Embassy was mad because they are used to handpicking police chiefs in exchange for a few computers."

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Will Global Economic Downturn Hit China Too?

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Real Clear Politics - By Ian Bremmer - Feb. 21 (Opinion) - Not so long ago, conventional wisdom held that China would emerge unscathed from the global financial crisis, mainly because its banks had virtually no exposure to the toxic assets poisoning the Western financial system. Some still hope China will help fuel a broad recovery. But warning signs have begun to emerge, as the Chinese economy slows and thousands of its manufacturers close their doors. Might the financial crisis inflict enough damage to pose serious risks for China's stability? The threat is real, but it's not imminent.

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As U.S. lawmakers visit, Mideast ponders what comes next

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Dion Nissenbaum - Feb. 20 (News Report) - For the first time in nearly a decade, U.S. lawmakers toured the isolated, battle-scarred Gaza Strip Thursday in a high-profile visit that came as the new Obama administration in Washington is developing its diplomatic priorities for the Middle East.

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Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. to Begin Talks

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Newsweek - By Michael Hirsch - Feb. 20 (News Analysis) - Holbrooke seems keen on applying a similar tactic to one of the most intractable feuds of the present day: between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Next week, acting on a suggestion from Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Holbrooke and the Defense Department are convening a four-day trilateral meeting between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States in which senior foreign ministry and intelligence officials will come to Washington for direct negotiations.

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Obama's 'Seven Days in May' Moment

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Robert Parry - Feb. 20 (Opinion) - Only one month into his presidency, Barack Obama is finding himself confronting not only George W. Bush’s left-behind crises but an array of influential enemies in the military, financial circles, the political world and the media – determined to thwart Obama’s agenda for “change.”

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Grading the Listening Tours

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Danielle Pletka, Daniel P. Serwer, Aaron David Miller, Rick Barton, Karin von Hippel, Shannon Hayden, David Shambaugh - Feb. 20 (News Analysis) - Three weeks into the Obama administration, the transformational diplomacy of his predecessor is out, and transactional diplomacy is in. The big rhetoric about good, evil and the war on terror is gone. And Obama is picking his spots more carefully. Neither Obama nor Clinton wants to get bogged down in the affairs of small tribes to the east that have a tradition of driving big powers crazy without reaching agreements. Instead, they went to Canada, China and Japan -- places where we have relationships that are working, and that can be tied to fixing America's broken house.

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Future of Public Diplomacy Unsettled at State