August 17th 2013
Part 1.
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For a President who won the Nobel Peace prize only months into his
presidency, times have truly changed. The foreign policy reset President
Obama promised after President George W. Bush’s tenure did not
materialize, and in fact, America’s standing in the world has only
gotten worse.
President Obama is not the only one culpable in this. Former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also shares the blame. Yes, she
traveled a lot, but what did she really accomplish?
Our relationship with a rising Russia has taken a giant step
backwards and is teetering towards another Cold War. Vladimir Putin and
his cronies in the Kremlin have played President Obama and his foreign
policy team for fools with the Edward Snowden incident. We look
powerless as Mr. Putin smiles while he is sticking it to Americans. The
problem with the Snowden incident is the whole world is watching and
America looks weak, which takes us to the Middle East.
Syria is completely out of control and an intense civil war is being
waged. The Assad government, which is backed by Putin’s Russia, has
managed to survive a stalemate. Those fighting against Assad are not
friends of America, in fact it has been reported that there are elements
of al Qaeda within those forces opposed to the Assad regime.
Iraq has seen a dramatic uptick in sectarian violence. Of course, the
American mainstream media is not talking about it because it is not
harming George W. Bush’s approval ratings. Over the past few months,
violence in Iraq has steadily increased to a five-year high.
Al Qaeda is to blame, with Shia Muslims being targeted. Fears of a full
blown sectarian war are high, especially since U.S. forces are not
there to provide a buffer. Our combat forces have been out of the
country for a year and a half.
In Afghanistan, the government of President Hamid Karzai is looking
at what currently is happening in Iraq and not wanting that outcome to
befall Afghanistan. That could be the reason they are promoting an Islamist
to take over Afghanistan next year. President Obama has pledged to
leave a very small force of 7,000 troops in Afghanistan for training and
counter terror operations. But a current report
states that military commanders are pressing for more troops to stay.
America has sacrificed too much blood and treasure to let Afghanistan
slip back into the hands of the Taliban. If that happens, it would be a
complete disaster and also avoidable.
Egypt's security forces
have cleared a Cairo mosque after a long stand-off with Muslim
Brotherhood supporters barricaded inside, state media says.
All the protesters have now been taken out of the mosque, and many have been arrested, security forces say.
The confrontation at the al-Fath mosque continued for most of
the day - with exchanges of gunfire between security forces and
protesters.
Meanwhile the interim PM has proposed legally dissolving the Brotherhood.
The group supports the ousted President Mohammed Morsi, and wants him to be reinstated.
Despite being closely allied to Mr Morsi's government, the
Brotherhood has always technically been a banned organisation - it was
officially dissolved by Egypt's military rulers in 1954 - but it
recently registered itself as a non-governmental organisation.
Iraq has asked the United States for new help to fight extremists in the country less than two years after it forced American troops to withdraw.
The request follows a resurgence of violence across Iraq and a renewed threat from al Qaeda extremists. The White House has largely turned its attention away from Iraq since US forces left in 2011.
But the country has recently been hit with deadly bombings at a rate reminiscent of Iraq's darkest days, stoking new fears of a civil war. More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in terror-related attacks in July, the deadliest month since 2008.
The violence has spurred Baghdad to seek new US aid to curb the threat, said Iraqi Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
He said a US assistance package could include a limited number of advisers, intelligence analysis and surveillance assets including lethal drones.
BENGHAZI, Libya, Aug 17 (Reuters) - A bomb blast ripped through the
garden wall of the Egyptian consulate in the eastern Libyan city of
Benghazi on Saturday, injuring a security guard who needed hospital
treatment, witnesses said.
They said at least
five children were also cut by flying glass from the explosion, which
blew out windows and significantly damaged a building opposite the
consulate and vehicles.
There was no immediate
claim of responsibility for the attack. Witnesses said the bomb had
apparently been hidden inside a briefcase.
Police
cordoned off the scene as investigators combed the area for clues.
They later reopened the street but posted extra police outside the
consulate.
Egyptian security forces are
conducting a crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters following last
month's ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
At
least 800 people have been killed in three days of violence after
security forces broke up Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo set up to
demand Mursi's reinstatement.
WASHINGTON, August 16, 2013 — Yesterday, President Obama was doing the two things he does best: playing golf and helping America’s enemies.
Obama briefly interrupted his golf game and vacation to record a
short audio statement in which he announced that America will cancel
bilateral military exercises with Egypt because of the Egyptian
military’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt’s leaders breathed a sigh of relief; at least he wasn’t sending them Joe Biden.
Obama announced, “We don’t take sides with any particular party or
political figure.” His policies have been consistent since he went on
his apology tour to Cairo in June 2009. If a group is anti-American and
is working against America, western interests, freedom or liberty, Obama
supports it.
When Obama says we are not siding with any particular party or
political figure, there would be howls of laughter in Cairo if not for
the fact the Nile is running red with blood.
Copts shot and killed, churches and homes burned.An Egyptian Christian who has witnessed the revenge attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood in his nation this week said that while domestic media have reported casualty counts they largely have ignored the personal suffering of Christians.
Attacks on Christians have taken place since Wednesday in Fayoum, Bani Suwief, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Giza and Cairo in response to the military’s violent evacuation of two Muslim Brotherhood demonstration camps, which killed more than 600, noted the Christian, who asked to be identified only as “Joseph.”
They look like ordinary children: the girls are dressed in pink and the
boys wear t-shirts and jeans. They jump on trampolines and careen,
laughing, down inflatable slides. The difference between these kids at a
UN-sponsored camp, though, and regular children at camps all over
America happens when they enthusiastically participate in lessons urging
them to take back “their land” (i.e., Palestine) from the reviled Jews,
by any means possible, including martyrdom and war.
The single biggest support of the United Nation is the U.S., which
provides about 25% of its total annual budget. (The EU is the second
biggest contributor, although it sends slightly half the amount of money
that comes from the United States.) One of the UN subdivisions that the
U.S. funds is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). UNRWA
exists to support a single constituency: Palestinians. None of the
other approximately 50 million other refugees that have come into being
since UNRWA was created in 1949 have their own permanent UN agency.
One of the things that the American-funded UNRWA provides for
Palestinians is a summer camp for children. Freeing children, if only
briefly, from the confines of the Gaza strip, an area under Hamas’
control, is a good idea. Despite receiving billions of dollars in
foreign aid, graft and an ideological culture dedicated to violence mean
that Gaza is a ghetto.
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping next month, Interfax said on Thursday.
The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit
in St Petersburg scheduled for September 5-6, the agency quoted a senior
state official as saying.
US President Barack Obama earlier this month cancelled a
meeting with Mr Putin due to be held ahead of the same summit, in
retaliation for Moscow granting ex-spy agency contractor Edward Snowden
asylum.
Moscow and Beijing have progressively strengthened political
and commercial ties since the Soviet era, when relations were often
strained. Both countries now say they need a counterweight to US
influence in the world.
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As members of the United Nations Security Council, Russia and
China have repeatedly ruled out sanctioning Syria and vetoed three
Western and Gulf Arab-backed resolutions condemning President Bashar
al-Assad for an increasingly brutal war.
In March, Mr Xi paid his first foreign state visit as president to Moscow.
Trade flows between Russia and China more than doubled to
$US87.5 billion in the five years to 2012 - still far below the levels
of Russia's trade with the European Union and China's with the United
States.
PESHAWAR (Pakistan): Gunmen shot dead a secular female politician from Pakistan's troubled northwest after breaking into her home at night, police said on Saturday.
Najma Hanif, 35, was a senior member of the Awami National Pary
(ANP) which is known for its outspoken views against the Taliban and
backed military operations against the insurgents while it ruled the
restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Police said the attackers, who have not yet been identified, used a silenced pistol.
"One or two attackers entered the house and killed her," Mohammad Faisal, a senior police officer said.
The motive behind the shooting was unclear but Hanif's husband and son
along with their bodyguard were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber in
November 2011.
The ANP led the province and was a member of the ruling coalition in the centre from 2008 until elections earlier this year.
The party has been relentlessly targeted by the Taliban, losing
hundreds of activists, with attacks stepped up during the run up to the
May polls.
Cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan's Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has now formed a coalition government in the
province but ANP leaders remain in the militants' sights.
Tunisia was
the birthplace of the Arab Spring over two years ago. But growing
frustration and violence have caused the chasm between secularists and
Islamists to widen, leading many to fear political chaos like that
gripping Egypt.
Mount Chaambi has been burning for four days now. At the foot of the
mountain, in his house among the olive trees, Khaled Dalhoumi watches
black smoke rise into the sky, as if Chaambi were a volcano.
On Friday, August 2, Dalhoumi woke to the distant sound of explosions.
He went out his front door and saw bombs raining onto the mountains.
Since then, he has heard shots and shelling at all hours, and at night
the mountain is lit by the glow of massive forest fires. The mountain
where Dalhoumi's father once mined for lead, and which has since been
made a national park, has become a war zone. "It breaks my heart," he
says.
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Obama’s Economic Approval Slips to 35%
PRINCETON, NJ — Despite President Barack Obama’s renewed focus on the nation’s economy this summer, he scores worse with Americans on the economy than he did in June. His approval rating on the issue, now 35%, is down seven percentage points, and his ratings on taxes and the federal budget deficit are each down five points. During the same period, his overall approval rating is down three points.Oklahoma: Clinton-appointed fed judge sides with Hamas-CAIR, throws out vote to ban sharia law
via Oklahoma’s ban on Sharia law thrown out by federal judge | Tulsa World.
An Oklahoma constitutional amendment that would bar the state’s courts from considering or using Sharia law was ruled unconstitutional Thursday by a federal judge in Oklahoma City.
In finding the law in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the certification of the results of the state question that put the Sharia law ban into the state constitution.
“While the public has an interest in the will of the voters being carried out, the Court finds that the public has a more profound and long-term interest in upholding an individual’s constitutional rights,” the judge wrote.
In recently obtained documents from the Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), an "Inside the Beltway" public-interest group reported on
Thursday that it discovered that on Feb. 12, 2013, Sarah Gerecke, HUD's
assistant secretary for Office of Housing Counseling, may have violated
federal law.
According to officials at Judicial Watch, Gerecke requested that more
than $200,000 be removed from the coffers of the disbanded Affordable
Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), an ACORN (Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now) affiliate, and added to the coffers of HUD
intermediary Mission for Peace “to specifically pay for the activities of former AHCOA affiliates.”
"Just as criminals change their aliases, ACORN is changing its name,"
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform, said in a press statement.
As we now know from the New York Times, the president hopes to seize any opportunity I can find to work with Congress to strengthen the middle class, improve their prospects, improve their security. But where Congress is unwilling to act, I will take whatever administrative steps that I can in order to do right by the American people.
The latest such idea is unilaterally to levy a federal fee (traditionally known in America as a “tax”) on mobile phone users in order to pay for “high-speed Internet access in schools that would allow students to use digital notebooks and teachers to customize lessons like never before.” As the Standard Examiner notes, the program, named “ConnectEd,”
is a case study in how Obama is trying to accomplish a second-term legacy despite Republican opposition in Congress.
“It’s got a lot of the characteristics of big-vision policy that you really don’t get through legislation anymore,” said Rob Nabors, White House deputy chief of staff, who is coordinating executive actions.
Dilate on this phrase for a moment: “Big-vision policy that you really don’t get through legislation anymore.” Rob Nabors probably doesn’t know how right he is. Typically in America, when presidents cannot get the legislation they want through the peculiarly named “legislative” branch, that legislation remains unpassed. But, as George Will observed this morning in masterly fashion, this is apparently of little consequence to a man whose “increasingly grandiose claims for presidential power” rest upon the novel conceit that the structure of the republic retains its integrity only if its institutions agree to do what the incumbent president considers imperative.
A letter drafted by the Obama administration specifically to inform
Congress of the government’s mass collection of Americans’ telephone
communications data was withheld from lawmakers by leaders of the House
Intelligence Committee in the months before a key vote affecting the
future of the program.
The February 2011 document was declassified last month and has
been cited repeatedly by administration officials and legislative
leaders as evidence that the surveillance program had been properly
examined by Congress as part of an aggressive system of checks and
balances.
A cover letter to the House and Senate intelligence committees that
was sent with the document asked the leaders of each panel to share the
written material with all members of Congress.
Ronald Weich, who
was an assistant attorney general at the time, wrote that making the
material available to Congress would be an “effective way to inform the
legislative debate about reauthorization” of the provision of the
Patriot Act that served as the legal basis for the phone surveillance. A
similar document was available to all members of Congress in 2009,
prior to a 2010 reauthorization vote.
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