Posts about Obama Surrenders Afghanistan as of October 28, 2009

Washington Examiner:Twice as many Democrats say health care reform should be President Obama’s top priority as say the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be his top concern, according to a new Gallup poll.Gallup asked people this question: “Which of the following should be Barack Obama’s top priority as president — the economy, health care, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy, the federal budget deficit, or something else?” (The choices were rotated so that not every respondent heard them in the same order.) At the top of the list, cited most by Democrats, independents and Republicans, is the economy.

Two excellent choices say I. Hagel was an enlisted man who earned numerous combat medals and Boren, well, that guy is just flat out smart. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp…wraONpnE31-9YA WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday named two distinguished ex-senators to a board tasked with providing him with objective advice in intelligence matters free of political bias.

The Obama administration faces some big risks in the impending escalation of the war in Afghanistan: soldiers are asked to ‘clear huge areas of insurgent fighters who look exactly like the civilian population, and establish “control” of places that have never been controlled by a central government at any point in their history,’ and driving the Taliban out of Afghanistan will push them to nuclearized Pakistan.

United Nations officials said Wednesday that at least five U.N. workers and three Afghans were killed and nine others wounded by three Taliban militants, who were themselves shot dead during the attack at a private residence in Kabul, Afghanistan.  —KA BBC: The attack on the private Bekhtar guesthouse in the Shar-i-Naw district was the deadliest on the United Nations in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Telegraph UK : Barack Obama must stop campaigning and start governing President Barack Obama still steems to be running for office, rather than running the country by Toby Harnden Perhaps we should not be surprised that the land of the permanent campaign has produced a president like Barack Obama. During his White House bid, Mr Obama’s staff argued that his masterful oversight of the machinery that ultimately got him elected was his highest achievement.

By William Bowles Featured WriterDandelion SaladCreative-i 28 October 2009The report on the explosion that blew an RAF Nimrod out of the sky over Helmand Province on 2 September, 2006 in which fourteen people died, was released today and it confirms my view of British military ‘adventures’ that I expressed in ‘Lest we forget?’.

Original Home Page All Contents of Site – Index Is ‘President Blair’ a shoo-in? Yes and No “Ban Blair-Baiting” petit ion – please sign Comment at end 28th October, 2009 Global Arab Network has this Q&A session from Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa. The press session was organised by Arab Media Watch on 27 October 2009 in London. For those who insist, out of sheer ingnorance or for their own political reasons, that Tony Blair has done nothing in his post as Quartet envoy, I refer them to this: Q.

barack obama says he will ‘announce’ his decision on sending more troops to afghanistan sometime between november 7 and november 20. most say it will be to send more troops but not the 40,000 requested by general mcchrystal. obviously this decision is competing with ‘when to play golf next’ and ‘where should i globe-trot to now’? the appeaser-in-chief recently told the military ‘I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way’ – this obviously one of his many tiresome pokes at president bush – but the looks on the faces of the guys behind obama in this video say it all.

President Barack Obama is considering a new configuration of forces in Afghanistan that could radically alter the numbers of troops in Helmand the province where British troops are concentrated. Go to Source

Just Something For the President to Consider As He Plays Golf.-By Carolyn Hileman at the Voice On October 1, 2009, President Obama met with Gen. Stanley McChrystal onboard Air Force One where Gen. McChrystal formally requested 40,000 new troops sent to Afghanistan, just one day before his trip to Copenhagen to bid for the 2012 Olympics. On October 1, 2009, Army Spc. Paul E. Andersen, Army Sgt. Roberto D. Sanchez, and Army Spc. Russell S. Hercules Jr died from wounds suffered in combat.

Since last year’s presidential election, Sarah Palin has made unconventional moves for someone presumably planning to make a play for the White House in 2012. CNN’s Alexander Mooney takes a look at what she’s doing and whether it’s working to solidify her status in the GOP and boost her chances of running for president soon.  —KA CNN: “Her biggest problem is the perception that she is not qualified to be president,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

Published on October 28, 2009 by admin Today top stories about Afghan Runoff Stirs Concern of Repeat Fraud. US wants a relatively clean election while it considers whether to send more troops and resources to Afghanistan to fight Taliban This is wegossips top stories about Afghan Runoff Stirs Concern of Repeat Fraud feel free to come again here, with our latest news.Related postsIraq to Vote on Kirkuk Balloting Guidelines (0)Taliban Control Spreads in Afghanistan (0)Obama: Afghan Decisions

Islamic countries pushing global “blasphemy” law As noted here many times, such a law would criminalize all honest exploration of the Islamic motives and goals of the jihadis, thereby rendering us defenseless against them. What is odd here is that the Christian Science Monitor says that the U.S. is opposing this initiative. That is good news… Selective outrage: Islamic world fuming over German who murdered hijab-wearing woman The photo above is from a protest in Istanbul.

One of the important challenges of President Obama’s administration is to sell the continuation of our “overseas contingency operation” (or perhaps FATAVE) in Afghanistan to an increasingly disenchanted audience at home and abroad.

« PreviousKarzai’s Brother Next »Barack Obama’s Well-Tended Money Machine Does Focus on the Family Fund Abortions? Posted by Amy SullivanWednesday, October 28, 2009 at 2:29 pm 17 Comments • Trackback (0) It does if you hold the organization to the same standard it uses to insist that health reform would result in publicly funded abortions.A few weeks ago, I wrote about the fungibility argument that many pro-life groups and politicians have employed to oppose health reform.

Should it really surprise us that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the suspected druglord and brother of President Hamid Karzai, is, as The New York Times reported last night , on the CIA payroll ? Remember how the United States entered Afghanistan in 2001. It wasn’t with infantry and air strikes. It was with CIA operatives meeting with Northern Alliance commanders and warlords, bearing briefcases and duffel bags full of cash to rent their allegiance for a strike down into Kabul and Kandahar to dislodge the Taliban.

I wonder if this was Dick Cheney’s idea ? Trouble is, it’s still going on now that Obama’s in charge. Whatever happened to Leon Panetta’s principles? They’re lost somewhere in Afghanistan, along with money paid to yet another Karzai bag man. Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years , according to current and former American officials.

The GOP strategy on Afghanistan has been to frame President Obama’s choice as a decision over whether or not to go along with his commanders’ desire for an expanded counterinsurgency, and the new NBC/ WSJ poll suggests it may be bearing some fruit. But first, I wanted to flag some amusing numbers from the internals that make Dick Cheney’s claim that Obama is “dithering” for too long over what to do look pretty silly: As you may know, the Obama administration has said it will not

Recommended: On Point’s hour on mobile tech; Greg Jaffe discussing Afghanistan on Fresh Air ; the Political Junkie on TOTN . Diane Rehm : The state of the GOP. Hour 2: Anne Heller, author of Ayn Rand and the World She Made . On Point : Going mobile. Hour 2: The spiritual lives of young Americans. Fresh Air : Washington Post Pentagon correspondent Greg Jaffe on the military options facing President Obama in Afghanistan. Talk of the Nation : Political Junkie. Hour 2: Making kids smarter.

(No Ratings Yet) Loading … Obama Says He Won’t Be Rushed – New York TimesIs Obama Dithering on Afghanistan? – Washington PostJapan PM pushes for ‘equal’ ties with US – AFPMinisters warn of poll boost for BNP after Question Time – guardian.co.ukRun-off Election Won’t Resolve Afghanistan’s Dilemma – Voice of AmericaThousands Of Post Workers Strike For Second Day – New York Times guardian.co.uk Germany’s Merkel begins new term BBC News German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been formally re-elected for a second term by MPs, as her coalition prepares to be sworn in.

Clinton arrives on Pakistan visit Mrs Clinton will stay in Pakistan for three days The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Islamabad at the start of a three-day visit to Pakistan. The trip is being described as an attempt to turn a new page in the US relationship with the country. As she arrived, she said that several civilian investment deals would be signed during her visit. The US has concerns about the increasing numbers of militant attacks on the Pakistan authorities, and the security of its nuclear weapons.

October 28th, 2009It’s hard to know who to cheer for in a fight between Joe Biden’s plan for the war in Afghanistan and the United Nations. Biden’s plan is to use Special Forces soldiers and drone aircraft to take out Taliban and al Qaeda leadership, exposing fewer troops to actual combat. But the UN has stepped in and want the Obama Administration to prove how their plan is legal, according to the Associated Press and the Stars and Stripes;Alston, the U.N.

William Amos finds Barack Obama offering the people of Virginia some, well, strange advice at a campaign stop for the plummeting Creigh Deeds — considering the source:Obama made passing reference to the Republican front-runner, Bob McDonnell.“We don’t need people who are slick, who say one thing and do another and go back to the policies of yesteryear,” he said. “They got us in trouble in the first place.”Obama continued, “we’ve got enough of those politicians — we have a whole bunch in Washington D.C.”We’ve got one in the White House, too.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — A powerful car bomb ripped through a bustling marketplace in Peshawar Wednesday, killing at least 90 people — most of them women — a government official said. The blast at the Meena Bazaar injured more than 200 others, according to North West Frontier Province’s information minister. The market is a labyrinth of shops popular with women in the Peepal Mandi section of the city. The attack is the deadliest ever carried out in Peshawar and is among the country’s deadliest.

Oct28 News Anchor McClatchy Newspapers – BAGHDAD — Militants linked to al Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility Tuesday for a pair of powerful truck bombs that killed 155 people and wounded 600 in the latest insurgent assault on the fragile Iraqi government.Read the Full StoryAl Qaida in Iraq claims attacks that crippled Baghdad government (McClatchy Newspapers) Share and Enjoy:Related News PostsAugust 19, 2009 — Bombs kill dozens on Baghdad’s deadliest day in 18 months (McClatchy

By Loyd Eskildson “The Auto Bailout” (Steven Rattner) tells how the author moved from chief economic correspondent for the New York Times to founding the investment firm Quadrangle Group, and then to leading President Obama’s auto task force. The work was seen as a restructuring challenge, not as an ongoing management job. Initial impressions (GM’s finances, Chrysler’s new car pipeline) were that the case for a bailout was weak; however, the potential impact of liquidation on the Midwest was staggering.

more images more images McCain exhorts Obama to make Afghan decision now WASHINGTON ? Sen. John McCain is exhorting President Barack Obama to make a decision quickly on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, saying U.S allies are nervous and military commanders are frustrated. McCain said in a nationally broadcast interview Wednesday that the war policy in Afghanistan “as been [...]

Yea, this is gonna go well: KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr.

ABC Sources tell ABC News that as of now President Obama will likely announce his decision about a new strategy in Afghanistan at some point between the Afghan run-off election, November 7, and the … [ visit site to read more ]

admin 28 October 2009Bizzare and Offbeat No CommentNYT: President Obama’s advisers are coalescing around a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers, administration officials say.

(No Ratings Yet) Loading … Kerry: Afghan Surge Proposal ‘Goes Too Far, Too Fast’ – Voice of AmericaObama says he will not rush Afghanistan decision – The Associated PressAbbas says might not run in election, official says – Washington PostObama Says He Won’t Be Rushed – New York TimesIs Obama Dithering on Afghanistan?

October 28th, 2009 by Hina Safdar ( 3 Views )Share on Twitter At least three gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed an international guesthouse in the in the Shar-i-Naw area of Kabul, Afghanistan before dawn killing at least ten U.N workers and wounded many others. They fought pitched battles with security forces for two hours before they either detonated their explosives or were shot dead. According to Taliban it was the “first step” to disrupt next month’s presidential runoff election between President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah..

WASHINGTON – The United States has said it will take all steps to protect population centers in Afghanistan. At present, there are about ten top population centers. President Barack Obama, however, is to decide how much of Afghanistan should fall under the direct protection of American and NATO forces. At the moment, the Obama administration is looking to [...]

RedState Morning Briefing For October 28, 2009 Dear Olympia Snowe: Glad to see you’ve flipped back to opposing the Democrats on health care. Hope you were able to find a use for the 1600 lbs. of rock salt we sent you! xoxoxo – Erick 1. 45 Years Ago Today: We Have a Rendezvous With Destiny 2. Obama Afghanistan Policy Update 3. Leaked Internal House Leadership Whip Count Shows 47 Dems at No, 8 Leaning No and 12 Undecided 4.

By Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen NY Times | Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr.

Afghanistan: Resignation Letter of US Official Matthew Hoh Video and Transcript: Obama “I Will Never Rush” on Afghanistan (26 October) Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis The Taliban have claimed this morning’s attack on a guest house used by United Nations staff in the centre of Kabul. The UN says six staff were killed, while police report three attackers and three Afghan security personnel died in a firefight that lasted several hours.

Racist Afghani students burn President Obama in effigy Oh, those irrepressible Afghani university students. They had themselves a grand old time the other day and it wasn’t even homecoming. As Associated Press reports: University students play with a burning effigy of the President Barack Obama during a demonstration in front of the Afghan Parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009. Hundreds of Afghans shouted anti-US, NATO and Afghan government slogans and burned effigy of the President Barack Obama during a rally to protest a rumor that U.S.

WASHINGTON (Sami Abraham): US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said that the US, with the help of Pakistani Government and Intelligence is engaging in a process to separate those groups of talaban who were not committed with the ideology of Alqaeda in Afghanistan. And the Pakistani Government can do the same in the case of Pakistan as well.

I thought this might be a good time to repost this. “The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins” Soren Kierkegaard The United States had never been more powerful than it was on September 12th, 2001. On that day, with the sympathy of the world, we had more true power than all the armies on Earth combined. Strange to think that as we lay smoldering, bleeding in the ruins of our collective self image as the most powerful nation on Earth, we had in fact grown in power by exponent.

Well now, the paper of what, why didn’t anyone tell us? record has stumbled across information suggesting that Ahmed Wali Karzai is on the CIA’s payroll. Yeah, that Ahmed Karzai who had the Senate’s panties all in a bunch as recently as August for his purported role in the Afghan opium trade.According to the paper of sure we’ll lie to help you invade Iraq record, Mr. Karzai was paid for “a variety of services” that included raising a paramilitary force.

The Guam Legislature is considering a bill to create a new legal status of “domestic partnership” distinct from “marriage” but conferring the same rights and duties.  The Catholic Archbishop there disapproves of the legislation.  In a pastoral letter, the Archbishop said that the bill goes against “right reason” because homosexual relations are “objectively disordered” and that the legislature could not pass it without “stripping its own laws of any force to bind the consciences of the citizens

The criticisms of Ahmad Wali Karzai’s ties to the Central Intelligence Agency are all valid, and echo the concerns that many Afghans had in 2001 when the United States originally allied itself with the various Afghan warlords to oust the Taliban: Ahmed Wali Karzai , the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country ’ s booming illegal opium trade , gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency , and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

I blogged an item earlier today about the Catholic Archdiocese of Agana (Guam) for this paragraph in its criticism of the proposed Guam domestic partnership bill (links are in the original post): The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self-sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John Paul II has called the culture of death. Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture.

“You clearly cannot be complaining about Obama’s dithering when you yourself are asserting, no, bragging, that your administration didn’t review the Afghanistan strategy until you were packing to leave.” – Jon Stewart (via soupsoup )

The CIA’s secret Predator war: JANE MAYER of the New Yorker reports on the secret war being fought with remote controlled unmanned planes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The program has dramatically expanded under Obama .  “Nearly all the victims have remained faceless.”  Jane Mayer wrote about Obama’s predator war for the Oct. 26  New Yorker. Plus: AMIRA HASS is the columnist for Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper who has often told the hard truths about Israel and the Palestinians.

KABUL – Roadside bombs – the biggest killer of U.S. soldiers – claimed eight more American lives Tuesday, driving the U.S. death toll to a record level for the third time in four months as President Barack Obama nears a decision on a new strategy for the troubled war.Related Posts:Reuters: Two U.S. soldiers killed, Afghan war heats upLA Times: 5 U.S.

From a 3 page statement distributed by the local Catholic Archdiocese on the island of Guam in opposition to Bill 185, which would would allow same-sex couples to enter into legal domestic partnerships: The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self-sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John Paul II has called the culture of death. Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture.

Oct28 News Anchor Reuters – Eight U.S. troops were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday ahead of a run-off presidential election, the NATO-led alliance said, in the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the start of the war eight years ago.Read the Full StoryBombings push U.S. toll to worst month in Afghan war (Reuters) Share and Enjoy:Related News PostsOctober 27, 2009 — Bomb deaths push U.S. toll to worst in Afghan war (Reuters) – 2012th Top News ItemOctober 27, 2009 — Bombings push U.S.

Oct28 News Anchor AFP – Eight new fatalities Tuesday made October the deadliest month yet for US forces in Afghanistan, as President Barack Obama announced a key meeting with army chiefs to discuss his fateful troop decision.Read the Full StoryEight more US troops dead in Afghan war’s blackest month (AFP) Share and Enjoy:Related News PostsOctober 27, 2009 — Eight more US troops dead in Afghan war’s blackest month (AFP) – 2004th Top News ItemOctober 23, 2009 — NATO considers beefing

Tags People Celebrities High Tech Sports Odd News Top Information Health Business Spoken News News Photos Slideshows 1/134Corey Feldman’s wife files for divorce (AP) AP – Court records show Corey Feldman’s wife has filed for divorce after seven years of marriage. (AP) Click on the image for the actual size or for a fullscreen flash.Click here for more description.

Daily Mail US to Protect Populous Afghan Areas, Officials Say New York Times WASHINGTON — President Obama’s advisers are coalescing around a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers, administration officials said Tuesday, describing an approach … Americans’ bodies recovered after plane crash in Afghanistan CNN 8 US Soldiers, Afghan Civilian Killed in Southern Afghanistan Voice of America AP IMPACT: Troops already outnumber Taliban 12-1 The Associated Press Aljazeera.net Related posts: 14 Americans Die in Afghan Helicopter Crashes – NIMBRUNG.NET Telegraph.co.uk 14 Americans Die in Afghan Helicopter Crashes New…

If you have any doubt then listen to NPR’s Terry Gross interview   New York Times reporter David Rohde. Rohde was kidnapped by the Taliban and held for seven months (see his article “ 7 Months, 10 Days in Captivity “) before he escaped. I thought it especially interesting that Obama is hated more than Bush because of his predator drone attacks and escalation of the war in Afghanistan. And by the way, October, even though it is not over yet, is the worse month ever for the number of dead US soldiers in Afghanistan.

As the Obama Administration, military planners and Congress debate the future conduct of the war in Afghanistan, the Dallas Peace Center will mark the beginning of the ninth year of the war with vigils at Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s North Texas office every Saturday in the month of October. The vigils will call on Obama [...]

October 28, 2009, Posted by Pak Mahfil at 1:28 am | US President Barack Obama is vowing that despite criticism that he is dithering, he will not rush a fateful decision on whether to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan.Obama on Monday promised US troops a clear mission before pitching them into the worsening battle, after conducting the latest meeting of his war council, which is mounting a review of Afghan and Pakistan strategy.He spoke on another grim day for US troops in

Ted Rall – NEW YORK – Shortly after 9/​11, George W. Bush secretly signed two exec­u­tive orders. Both vio­lated basic con­sti­tu­tional pro­tec­tions as well as U.S. oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tional treaties, yet both car­ried the force of law.By I&VSphere: Related Content  Link to this page  Link to this page Copy the code below to your web site.x Get Link­ToTh­is­Page from the Cre­ative Real Estate Invest­ing Guide.

Ted Rall – NEW YORK – Shortly after 9/​11, George W. Bush secretly signed two exec­u­tive orders. Both vio­lated basic con­sti­tu­tional pro­tec­tions as well as U.S. oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tional treaties, yet both car­ried the force of law.By I&VSphere: Related Content  Link to this page  Link to this page Copy the code below to your web site.x Get Link­ToTh­is­Page from the Cre­ative Real Estate Invest­ing Guide.

Not on the itinerary. Obama won’t be going to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Which is frankly more of a surprise than you’d know from reading this AP story :  The two cities’ mayors formally invited Obama on Tuesday to visit sometime before next May, but U.S. officials say it is highly unlikely he will travel to either city during his Nov. 12-13 visit to Tokyo. An April speech Obama gave in Prague calling for a world free of nuclear weapons raised expectations, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month heightened them further.

The U.S. military is building a cadre of officers who each will serve a multi-year assignment dedicated to a narrow piece of the U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Known as “Af-Pak Hands,” the program steeps officers in the language and culture of the region , and limits the range of their duties and focus on a single area for a four-to-five-year cycle. Officers will serve in a similar job at home and downrange, an aspect of the program military officials say will enable them to create and maintain relationships with the local populace abroad, a lynchpin of counterinsurgency doctrine.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates hosted Gen. Xu Caihou, vice chairman of the People’s Liberation Army Central Military Commission for meetings today at the Pentagon. The two reaffirmed the consensus reached by President Obama and President Hu Jintao in April to build a positive, cooperative, and comprehensive U.S.-China relationship for the 21 st century.  They agreed on the need to work together to address the issues of Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and Pakistan.      Both sides agreed to strengthen efforts to build a sound and sustainable military to military relationship.

This country is slowly having the life choked out of it.Five days before he got into office, Obama declared:”We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”Since 20 January 2009, this is the “transformation” he’s wrought:–The total evisceration of the Dollar. –The hostile takeover and control of private industries and businesses. –A new, greedy Kleptocracy gouging the taxpayers to fund government bailouts.

By MATT BLICKENSTAFF The religious right has always had a tenuous relationship with reality, but one area of which they were unflinchingly certain, was the absolute infallibility of god’s words. Biblical literalism, the cornerstone of the American Christian right’s beliefs, has served as a convenient foil against social equality and economic justice. The prophet of the moral majority, Jerry Falwell, regularly hosted segregationist politicians on his “Old -Time Gospel Hour” radio show, in the midst of the civil rights movement.

The Military-Industrial-Congressional Cabal, Part Two “The Japanese and Chinese and others are paying for our wars. How much longer will they continue to do that? I’d submit that they won’t continue very much longer at all.” “So we’re coming to a fiscal crisis point that will not only stop these two wars, regardless of what we think about them. It will probably stop us being able to do just anything overseas. You will probably see forces beginning to come home from Germany, from Korea and from other places where we have extended them to protect the peripheries of our empire.

Under the Bush Administration Fox News had a charmed position, under Obama, not only is it in opposition, the White House has gone after its credibility as a news organisation. Conventional wisdom is that it is a mistake to beat up on the media, but here’s perhaps why Obama is really going after them : I think some people are under the impression that the White House wants Fox News to disappear. Nothing, I suspect, could be further from the truth.

MICHAEL GOODWIN: Hillary Is Missing In Inaction   Where is our Secretary of State these days? Did a lip zipper come with the job? Perhaps a lobotomy?    AP After Sen. John Kerry brokered a deal for a run-off election in Afghanistan, a headline asked a burning question: Is Kerry stealing Hillary’s thunder? What thunder? Hillary who? The Secretary of State is MII–Missing In Inaction. It’s not just that she’s been whittled down by the Obama White House, where there can be only one One.

by Andy Worthington Featured WriterDandelion Saladwww.andyworthington.co.uk 27 October 2009After railing against Senators and Representatives for their cowardly, uninformed and unacceptable attempts to prevent President Obama from bringing any Guantánamo prisoner to the US mainland for any reason — even for trials — which I wrote about most recently in an article entitled, “On Guantánamo, Lawmakers Reveal They Are Still Dick Cheney’s Pawns,” I’m delighted to report that, last Tuesday, the Senate

Winning his freedom was a big step for Mohammed Jawad, reportedly the youngest prisoner at Guantanamo Bay until he was released in August. But Jawad, who two U.S. judges have said was tortured in U.S. custody, is still suffering from the effects of his treatment during seven years in custody without charge, according to a Los Angeles Times story today. A federal judge in July said that without his statements given under torture, the government’s case against Jawad , who was around 12 years old when he was arrested for allegedly throwing a hand grenade at U.S.