Military Action Against Iran Back in Favour in the White House
THE GUARDIAN: · Military solution back in favour as Rice loses out
· President 'not prepared to leave conflict unresolved'
The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.

The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo." Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran (more) By Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Julian Borger

Mark Alexander

Des democrats veulent destituer Bush
LE FIGARO: En Californie, de petits groupes de militants se radicalisent à un an de la présidentielle.

POUR célébrer le 4 juillet, la fête nationale de l'indépendance américaine, les militants anti-Bush de Los Angeles n'ont pas acheté les pétards traditionnels. Sombres, mais déterminés à en finir avec un gouvernement qu'ils jugent corrompu et immoral, un groupe de Démocrates et de Verts ont choisi cette date emblématique pour ouvrir le premier « Impeachment Headquarters » (quartier général de la procédure de destitution) de George W. Bush et Dick Cheney, son vice-président, en présence de la représentante démocrate Maxine Waters.

« Nous avons le devoir de restaurer l'intégrité des États-Unis », a déclaré Byron De Lear, un membre du parti des Verts, lors de l'inauguration du centre dans un quartier à la mode de Los Angeles. « N'est-il pas ironique de constater que finalement, Paris Hilton aura passé plus de temps en prison que Lewis Libby ?» Exaspérés par l'érosion des libertés civiques, au nom de la lutte antiterroriste, dont ils accusent l'Administration Bush, les membres du groupe ont senti leur colère monter d'un cran en apprenant la grâce partielle accordée la semaine dernière par le président à l'ancien bras droit de Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby. Condamné pour obstruction à la justice, faux témoignage et parjure dans l'affaire Valerie Plame, cet agent de la CIA dont le nom avait été dévoilé à la presse par des membres de l'administration (un crime fédéral), Libby aurait dû prendre le chemin de la prison dans les prochaines semaines pour y passer deux ans et demi. Des démocrates américains veulent destituer Bush (suivant) D’Armelle Vincent

Mark Alexander

Schwerer Rückschlag für Bush
SPIEGELONLINE: Schwerer Rückschlag für US-Präsident Bush: Der Senat stimmte gegen sein Einwanderungsgesetz, das Millionen Illegale zu US-Bürgern machen sollte. Ablehnung kam vor allem aus den eigenen Reihen. Bushs Einwanderungsreform im Senat gescheitert (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Bush Returns to US ‘Lame’
TIMESONLINE: After a hero’s welcome in Albania, President Bush returned to Washington last night faced with a slew of domestic problems and the sober reality that his influence is fading rapidly at home.

His embattled Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, was facing a Democrat-led vote of no confidence; his plans for immigration reform are on the verge of collapse and there is growing conservative anger over his failure to pardon Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff. Libby was sentenced to 30 months last week in connection with the CIA leak scandal.

The no-confidence motion in Mr Gonzales was expected to fail in the Senate last night, and was little more than a political stunt by Democrats. But the vote revealed how the issues of Mr Gonzales, immigration and Libby are all linked in one crucial respect: growing conservative disgust with Mr Bush who, on the domestic front at least, appears to have truly entered lame-duck status. From hero to zero, Bush comes back to earth (more)

Mark Alexander

Gegen Bush wurde in Rom groß demonstriert
DIE PRESSE: Bush-Besuch in Italien. Der US-Präsident sprach mit dem Papst über den Irak und den G8-Gipfel. Zehntausende demonstrierten in Rom gegen Bushs Außenpolitik. Es kam zu Ausschreitungen.

US-Präsident George W. Bush ist am Samstag im Rahmen seines Besuchs in Rom von Papst Benedikt XVI. im Vatikan empfangen worden. Der Irak, die Situation in Nahost und der G8-Gipfel in Heiligendamm standen im Mittelpunkt des 35 Minuten langen Gesprächs in der vatikanischen Bibliothek. "Er hat mir den Eindruck eines liebevollen Menschen gemacht", so Bush nach der Unterredung über Benedikt XVI.

Der Papst erkundigte sich über die Resultate des G8-Gipfels. Bush bezeichnete den Gipfel als Erfolg. "Wie Sie wissen, gibt es verschiedene Meinungen, doch alles ist gut verlaufen. Wir haben über die Lage in Afrika diskutiert und starke Initiativen zur Bekämpfung von Aids ergriffen. Wir werden weiterhin in diese Richtung arbeiten", antwortete Bush dem Papst. Großdemonstration in Rom gegen Bush (mehr)

REUTERS (UK):
Anti-Bush demonstrations in Rome after Pope meeting

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy drohte Bush mit einer vorzeitigen Abreise des Gipfels sollte er nicht einlenken! Scheinbar, in Heiligendamm, soll es hinter den Kulissen heftigen Krach gegeben haben
SPIEGELONLINE: Am Ende einigten sich die G-8-Mächtigen doch noch beim Klimaschutz. Doch hinter den Kulissen soll es heftig gekracht haben: Frankreichs neuer Präsident Sarkozy drohte seinem US-Kollegen Bush damit, vorzeitig abzureisen, sollte der nicht einlenken.

Hamburg - Die Einigung zum Klimaschutz beim G-8-Gipfel in Heiligendamm ist erst nach einer heftigen Debatte zustande gekommen. Dabei habe Frankreichs Präsident Nicolas Sarkozy dem amerikanischen Präsidenten George W. Bush mit einer vorzeitigen Abreise gedroht, berichtet die "Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung" unter Berufung auf ein geheimes Protokoll. Sie stützt sich dabei auf die Aufzeichnungen eines sogenannten Sherpas, eines hochrangigen Regierungsmitarbeiters, der die Debatte direkt verfolgte und Notizen für sein Team anfertigte. Sarkozy drohte Bush mit vorzeitiger Abreise (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Bush to Meet Pope Benedict for First Time
BBC: US President George W Bush has arrived in Rome, for talks with Italian leaders and his first meeting with the Pope.

Benedict XVI is expected to raise the war in Iraq and the plight of Christians there, as well as the issues of abortion and gay marriage. Bush in Italy for talks with Pope (more)

LE FIGARO:
Premier tête-à-tête entre George Bush et Benoît XVI

Mark Alexander

Putins überraschender Vorschlag
NZZ: Der russische Präsident Wladimir Putin hat am G-8-Gipfel in Heiligendamm für eine Überraschung gesorgt: Nachdem er noch vor wenigen Tagen das geplante US-Raketenabwehrsystem heftig kritisiert hatte, schlug er dem amerikanischen Präsident Bush nun eine Zusammenarbeit vor. Die USA reagierten verhalten positiv auf das Angebot. Putin schlägt den USA gemeinsame Raketenabwehr vor: Überraschender Vorschlag am G-8-Gipfel (mehr)

LE FIGARO:
Bouclier antimissile : la proposition surprise de Poutine

Mark Alexander

Bush Extends Invitation to Russian Generals to Inspect Pentagon’s Central European Project
THE GUARDIAN: George Bush intervened yesterday in the worst dispute between Russia and the west since the end of the cold war, offering to cooperate with Vladimir Putin on the Pentagon's missile defence project.

With the row over the "Son of Star Wars" project threatening to derail the G8 summit, Mr Bush appealed to the Russian leader to relent in his fierce criticism of the missile shield. "The cold war is over, it ended. Russia is not the enemy," Mr Bush told journalists at Prague castle after discussing the Pentagon's plans with the Czech president and prime minister, Vaclav Klaus and Mirek Topolanek. Bush invited Russian generals to inspect Pentagon’s central European project (more) By Ian Traynor

Mark Alexander

Putin Is Denying Russians Basic Freedoms, Says Bush
TIMESONLINE: President Bush risked inflaming tensions with President Putin yesterday by declaring that Russia had derailed democratic reforms.

He said that Moscow’s failure to extend basic freedoms to its citizens was troubling.

His comments, delivered in the Czech Republic, part of the former Soviet Union’s sphere of influence, may widen the rift between Mr Putin and the West that is threatening to overshadow the G8 summit in Germany, which begins today. Bush defuses Cold War row, then attacks Putin’s record on democracy (more) By Tom Baldwin, Philip Webster, David Charter and Richard Beeston

Mark Alexander

The Spectre of a New Cold War
THE DAILY MAIL: Leader - Less than 20 years after the Berlin Wall came down, the menacing spectre of the Cold War looms once again over Europe.

At the start of an eight-day European tour, a swaggering George Bush talks up his plans to build a futuristic anti-missile defence shield in Russia's backyard.

Meanwhile, an intransigent Vladimir Putin warns he may take 'retaliatory steps', including aiming Russian nuclear weapons at targets in the West. Is this the start of a new Cold War (more)

DAILY MAIL:
A blundering Bush, Tsar Putin, and the question: will we, in this century, have to fight Russia? By Max Hastings

Mark Alexander

«La guerre froide est terminée», dit Bush
LE FIGARO: Le président américain a offert à la Russie de coopérer sur le projet de bouclier antimissiles. Une manière de calmer Moscou, violemment opposée à cette question.

«La guerre froide est terminée» : tel est le «principe général» que George W. Bush a tenu à rappeler mardi au sujet des relations américano-russes. Alors que Vladimir Poutine a ravivé le spectre de la grande confrontation géostratégique en menaçant de pointer de nouveaux missiles sur l'Europe, le président américain s’est voulu rassurant. Bush à Poutine : "La guerre froide est terminée" (more)

Mark Alexander

”We have to stay on the offence”, says Bush
BBC: US President George W Bush has warned that the coming weeks and months will be critical for the success of the new security strategy for Iraq.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr Bush said the last of the US troop reinforcements would arrive in Baghdad by the middle of June.

He said he expected heavy fighting to continue in Iraq during this time. Critical time for Iraq says Bush (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Bush: Critical time for Iraq

Mark Alexander

Enge Beziehung zwischen London und Washington wird unter Druck kommen
SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG: Großbritanniens designierter Premierminister Gordon Brown will Zeitungsangaben zufolge eine Kehrtwende in der Irak-Politik vollziehen und die britischen Soldaten rasch abziehen. Die Position der USA dürfte damit stark geschwächt werden.

US-Präsident George W. Bush sei von Beratern gewarnt worden, dass der Nachfolger von Tony Blair bereit sei, die traditionell besonders engen Beziehungen zwischen London und Washington durch einen baldigen Abzug der bislang noch 7100 britischen Soldaten zu gefährden, berichtete die konservative Zeitung The Sunday Telegraph. Panik im Weißen Haus (mehr)

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH:
Bush gets ready for Iraq U-turn by Brown

Mark Alexander

Carter “disappointed” by Blair’s Failure to Use His Influence with Bush More Wisely
BBC: Former US President Jimmy Carter has criticised outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his "blind" support of the war in Iraq. Carter attacks Blair’s Iraq role (more)

BBC:
Blair makes surprise Iraq visit

Mark Alexander

Endemic Corruption at the Top in Business and Politics, and the Unfairness of the System
Never in the history of the world has so much been earned by so few; and never in the history of the world has there been so much corruption.

Nowadays, we hear about corruption at the top all the time; indeed, almost on a daily basis, we hear some new titbit about the goings on of this CEO or that, or this politician or that. Political appointments are handed out based on nepotism and cronyism. Fat salaries are paid to people who have little experience, and sometimes even little understanding, of the positions to which they have been appointed.

We hear about this sort of thing all the time: one day it’s the slush fund that BAE is alleged to have set up, the next, it’s the enormous salary raise awarded to one’s fancy woman, yet another, we hear about the extraordinarily extravagant lifestyle of the gay head of Head of British Petroleum (BP), Lord John Browne, the socialist peer, who, it has been alleged, ran that oil company as though it had been his private enterprise, and who financed an extravagant gay lifestyle beyond any normal person’s wildest dreams: private jets to take the gay couple to the place or country of their whim and choosing; three-thousand-pound bottles of claret for lunches; trips to the Salzburg festivals; and so on and so forth. All, of course, on company expenses. Lord John Browne took the term ’gay lifestyle’ and gave it its full meaning! Pity he didn’t think of giving the term its full meaning out of his own pocket. Indeed, so gay was his lifestyle that his gay French-Canadian lover, Jeff Chevalier, couldn’t keep up with Lord Browne and is said to have had to go into therapy!

The evidence coming to light about the goings on at the World Bank apropos of the shenanigans of Paul Wolfowitz paints a depressing picture of corruption at the very top, in places one would hope would be corruption-free. Fat salary increases to one’s bed partner should surely be left to one's colleagues to decide; further, where such vested interests lie, they should be handed out by those other people on the basis of merit, and merit alone.

Then we have all those millions which are said to have been laundered in Switzerland to pay members of the royal family of Saudi Arabia in return for contracts and extensions of contracts pertaining to the Al-Yamamah contract which Mrs Thatcher initiated many years ago. It was a very large contract even then; now it is colossal. Funny that the name of the contract - Al-Yamamah- has such a whiter than white name; for in Arabic, the name means ‘the dove’. Doves, as we all know, have such a pure, often white, connotation. There seems to be little white and pure about the goings on behind the scenes between BAE and the Saudi government. Anyone would think that those already fabulously wealthy Saudi princes needed even more money!

The funny thing is that there are hundreds and hundreds (maybe even thousands and thousands) of ex-employees of BAE who have been treated shabbily. BAE is famous for its bad treatment of any employee who happens to fall foul of their autocratic management style. How many innocent ex-employees of BAE have had their careers washed up because of BAE, I wonder? How many lives has BAE destroyed? How many sacrificial lambs have there been since the inception of this so-called Al-Yamamah contract? One can only hazard a guess.

Then we have the Bush-Saudi connection. The relationship between these two parties seems most unhealthy to me and to many I know. Bush keeps harping on about terrorism and the need to win the war against it. Have you noticed, though, that he avoids calling that same terrorism by its proper name: Islamic terrorism? One can only wonder why.

The sad thing about the ‘war on terror’ is that Bush is all for beating it on the one hand, but on the other is allowing the Saudis to pump untold millions, nay billions, into the US to finance the propagation of Wahhabi Islam, known to be the most pernicious brand of Islam around. On this score, Bush speaks with bifurcated tongue. So Islam-friendly have his policies been over the time he has been in office that Islam has grown in the States like never before. Doesn’t the president realise that Islam is out to destroy the US constitution? Does he not realise that Islam and democracy are totally and utterly incompatible? Does he not realise that Islam is as much a political system as it is a religious one? Can Mr Bush really be that naïve? Or is there something else going on behind the scenes which we, the ordinary people, just don’t get to hear about?

Then we have the vast inequalities of wealth created here in the United Kingdom by no less than a so-called socialist government under Tony Blair’s watch. It has recently been reported that the top echelons of society have seen their riches increase threefold in the past decade! And they call that socialism! That’s ‘Champagne socialism’ if ever I saw it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am no friend of socialism. Socialism is one of the worst forms of government ever dreamed up by any political thinkers. But nor am I in favour of a form of unbridled capitalism which treats people unfairly. It cannot be right for foreigners to be allowed to come to this country and not be taxed on their earnings from abroad, when ordinary people, you the voters, have to be taxed on any small amount of money you might be able to earn from that self-same source.

In London, there are many who have to slave away for a full week for as little as £400, and often less, whereas there are the fat cats who earn upwards of £46,000 in that very same week!

If the corruption I have referred to is allowed to continue, then we should not be surprised if one of these days the people will turn on the people who govern them. Nor should we be surprised if the pendulum will swing in the favour of socialism in the years to come. Even the very best of parties come to an end, sometime. Our politicians should be aware that people’s tolerance is not infinite. It used to be said that poverty was the breeding ground of communism. In those days, they were speaking of absolute poverty, of course. But I should like to add that relative poverty could also one day become the breeding ground of communism. We should all be aware that this is a distinct possibility. Fairness still counts for something. No sensible person wants to live in a political system that treats the rich differently from the poor. Any country that legislates so much in favour of the rich at the expense of the poor is heading for political turmoil. Those odious systems of government – socialism and communism – are not dead; they are simply lying dormant. And in some countries, most notably in Venezuela, we can see extreme socialism beginning to raise its ugly head even as I write this.

Capitalism is by far the best political system around; though it is far from perfect. The greatest weakness in capitalism is that it plays to man’s greedy nature. In years gone by, this wasn’t such a problem, since in years gone by, the influence of the Church and Christianity were far greater: they acted as a counterbalance to man’s greed, and checked people’s lack of principle, thereby keeping corruption, nepotism, and cronyism in check. Alas, in today’s increasingly secular world, there are few such checks and balances. The Western capitalist world has become a ‘free for all’: you take what you can, when you can.

Corruption, nepotism, cronyism, unbridled greed – these are the sad realities of life in the twenty-first century.

©Mark Alexander

Bush Honours Queen

Photo of the Queen courtesy of Google Images

BBC: The Queen was honoured with a 21-gun salute as she met President George W Bush in Washington DC on the final leg of her US visit.

Standing outside the White House, the Queen said Britain and America had a "close and enduring" friendship.

The president said the Queen was "a good person, a strong leader and a great ally".

Later the Queen will be guest of honour at a state banquet and will visit the Children's National Medical Centre.

The state visit has included trips to the site of the first permanent English settlement in the US and the famous Kentucky Derby horse race. Bush honours Queen at White House (Read on)

WATCH BBC VIDEO: Washington welcomes Queen

Mark Alexander

The West’s Problems with Islam Exacerbated by Bush’s Determination Not to Identify the Enemy!
9/11, a day that will go down in history as a ‘day of infamy’, should have marked a turning point in our dealing with the Islamic world. Alas, no such ‘turning point’ came about.

Instead, the President of the US, George W Bush, insisted that the US was not at war with the Islamic world. I dare say it was true – to a point. What he failed to say was its corollary: namely, that the Islamic world was at war with America, and by extension, the West!

That this was so should have been made clear to all Americans, and to all Westerners alike. It wasn’t. The result of this is that we now have fuzzy thinking on the war we are engaged in, fuzzy thinking on the problems we face, fuzzy thinking on the growth of Islam in the West, fuzzy thinking on how to tackle our enemy: Islam!

Make no mistake about it: Islam is our enemy. Islam represents all that is abhorrent to the West: coercion, lack of religious freedom, totalitarianism, and much else besides. But, as the West was built up on largely Christian principles, it is also the negation of the notion that Jesus Christ is man’s Saviour, man’s Redeemer. They say that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God; we say that He was! The West, as a civilization, has been built up on that notion.

No problem, you say. Let them believe what they will. Wrong! You are wrong, so wrong, to take this viewpoint.

Muslims have principles. Indeed, it may be said that they have very strong principles. And they fight for them. How many of YOU have principles that you will fight for? It would appear that Westerners have few principles they are willing to fight for; indeed, many Westerners are not sure what their principles are! And therein lies one of the major problems we face today: not knowing what the West stands for; and, by extension, not knowing what we must fight for.

Yes, all right, we have some vague notions of freedom and democracy. But let’s face it, they are just that: vague notions! How many people truly understand what freedom is, still less what democracy entails? Do we really understand both concepts? Freedom is not just being able to go on your favourite foreign holiday when you please; democracy isn’t just about voting for this handsome guy, or that one. No! It’s about more than that. Much more!

How is the West going to deal with the onslaught of Islam when Westerners don’t even know what they should believe in? In years gone by, Westerners knew exactly what they should believe in: in Judeo-Christian principles. But as churches have emptied, many people now know sweet little about Judeo-Christian principles, and care still less about them.

It may be said, in no uncertain terms I have to say, that we ignore our Judeo-Christian heritage at our own peril! Islam is knocking on our door; in fact, we have already let it in. And the religion is growing apace in the West; and make no mistake about it: it is DIAMETRICALLY-OPPOSED to EVERYTHING we stand for; and it is only biding its time to take us over. The sickness of out time is that ordinary folk have no understanding of what is going on!

It is my belief that George W Bush must shoulder a lot of the blame for this ignorance. For, in stubbornly refusing to apportion blame for the atrocities of 9/11 on Muslims, he has also brought confusion into the minds of many Westerners. Westerners, as a result, have little understanding of what motivates Muslims. To be fed the nonsense that Muslims are our friends is a lie. A damn lie! And Bush, unless he is stupid, knows that very well. Islam is our enemy. It has to be, for it seeks to destroy us.

Make no mistake about it: Islam is waiting in the wings; it is just ready to take us over. Do you think that Muslims don’t realize and understand that Westerners have little stomach for a fight? Have none of it! They perceive YOU as WEAK! Really weak! After all, look what we are allowing them to get away with!

Only this week, it has come to our attention that our bankers are allowing the ideas of Shari’ah banking to be put in place here in the West. Now, in the United Kingdom, Shari’ah banking is to be made available to Muslims and Muslimahs across the United Kingdom, on every high street. Imagine the uproar in the UK in the 1940s with headlines such as Nazi banking to be made available to Nazis by all high street banks across the United Kingdom! It would have been totally unacceptable to people then; and it should be totally unacceptable to people now, too.

In the States, shrines to Islam, our enemy, are to be built by the US Marines. Just how stupid and naïve is that? How many shrines to Christianity are there in Saudi Arabia? We are giving these people an importance above their station!

A war – and George W Bush tells us we are at war – has to be fought from a position of strength. Furthermore, for a war to be successful, it has to be fought in the right atmosphere. The enemy has to be - yes, wait for it – demonized! I make no apologies for the use of that word. We are either at war with an enemy, or we are not! It’s as simple and straightforward as that!

No war in history has been fought like this ridiculous war! We are trying to fight a war without demonizing the enemy. It cannot be done! Either we are at war, or we are not. To say that we are at war with some vague notion of terrorists is nothing less than absurd. Terrorism equates to the Jihad. Indeed, the Jihad is terrorism unadulterated. The Jihad is nothing more and nothing less than terrorism used for the furtherance of the cause of Islam. It is used to Islamize your country and mine. Make no mistake about that!

I am reading a very good book at the moment entitled Defying Hitler. In it, the author , Sebastian Haffner, talks about how the enemy was demonized during the Great War. He talks about France’s “lust for revenge”, England’s “commercial envy”, and Russia’s “barbarism”. That’s how to do it, folks! You cannot win a war when everything has been sanitized. Everything, today, must be sanitized! No war has ever been so won! No war will ever be so won! Either we are at war; or we are not. It’s as simple as that! If we are at war, then we have to demonize the enemy.

President Bush, the day after 9/11, came on TV, almost embracing the Qur’an, stating that the US was not at war with the Islamic world. What he should have stated was that the Islamic world was at war with America and the West. And it still is. Indeed, the war has been intensified. Had he done this, we wouldn’t today be seeing the growth of Islamic banking in the West, the building of shrines to Islam in the US Marines, and we wouldn’t be in such a mess with Islam in general. President Bush! You have failed! You have failed miserably! You’ve had your chance, and you’ve blown it. Move over, Sir! Let someone else try and clear up your mess!

©Mark Alexander

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