Iraqi Jailed for Bush Shoe Attack
BBC: An Iraqi journalist hailed as a hero in the Arab world for throwing his shoes at former US President George W Bush has been jailed for three years.

Muntadar al-Zaidi, the shoe-thrower. Photo courtesy of the BBC
Muntadar al-Zaidi pleaded not guilty as his trial resumed in Baghdad, telling the judge:"My reaction was natural, just like any Iraqi."

He could have been jailed for 15 years for assaulting a foreign leader on an official visit. >>> | Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Dhimmitude Alert! Presidential Message: Eid al-Fitr
THE WHITE HOUSE: I send greetings to Muslims everywhere celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the Festival of Breaking the Fast.
During the three-day festival of Eid al-Fitr, Muslims celebrate the completion of their fast and the blessings of a renewed faith.

On this special occasion, families and friends around the globe gather to share traditional foods and congratulate each other on meeting the test of Ramadan.

Our Nation has millions of citizens who practice Islam, and our country benefits from their many contributions. This holiday is also an opportunity for Muslims to reflect on Islam's vibrant culture, which has enriched civilization for centuries.
Laura and I send our best wishes. Eid Mubarak.

GEORGE W. BUSH [Source: The White House] | September 30, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

President Bush Attends Iftaar Dinner: State Dining Room
President Bush giving a speech at the Iftaar dinner in the state dining room of the White House, the annual dinner given at the White House to mark Ramadan festivities. A tradition started by President Bush as a thank you to Muslims for the 9/11 attacks!
THE WHITE HOUSE: THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, and welcome. Over the past eight years, we have made the Iftaar dinner an annual tradition here at the White House. And I'm really glad we did. At this year's gathering, we pay special tribute to the many contribution Muslim Americans have made to our nation. We join in wishing Muslims around the world, "Ramadan Mubarak."

Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. We're honored you're in our midst. Congressman Keith Ellison, Congressman André Carson are with us. Members of the administration here tonight; members of the diplomatic corps -- we are glad you're here; my fellow citizens. Major, I'm looking forward to the blessing. Thank you for being here with us today.

According to the teachings of Islam, Ramadan commemorates the revelation of God's word in the Holy Koran to the prophet Mohammad. The word has become the foundation for one of the world's great religions. Today more than a billion Muslims around the globe celebrate the month of Ramadan with daily fasting, heartfelt prayer, and acts of charity.

During Ramadan, we are reminded of Islam's long and distinguished history. Throughout the centuries, the Islamic world has been home to great centers of learning and culture. Muslim thinkers and scientists have advanced the frontiers of human knowledge. People of all faiths have benefited from the achievements of Muslims in fields from philosophy and poetry to mathematics and medicine. President Bush Attends Iftaar Dinner >>> | September 17, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

Russia: The New Order Cometh
INTERNATIONAL ANALYST NETWORK: There are two critical lessons to be learned from the recent Russian-Georgian war. First, Western security commitments should not to be made unless they can be enforced; and second, autonomous ethnic regions within tiny nations that border powerful states carry the potential for future conflicts.

The Russian-Georgian war was the by-product of a poorly thought out American foreign policy in the Caucasus because it attempted to gain American influence against Russia without providing sufficient American power to sustain that policy when challenged by Russia. This does not excuse the brutal application of Russian power against a tiny neighboring state, but it goes a long way in explaining why America responded as it did, and why American foreign policy in the Caucasus has proven to be without substance.

During the war, President Bush proclaimed America’s "unwavering support" for the former Soviet republic of Georgia. For the U.S. however, it was just another hollow gesture that reinforced an unfortunate pattern of American hubris. Bush lauded the Rose Revolution that swept Mikheil Saakashvili to power, backed Georgia's bid to enter NATO, and traveled to Tbilisi in 2005 to give his "pledge to the Georgian people that you've got a solid friend in America". In response, the Georgians aligned themselves with the U.S., sent 2,000 troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan beside American forces, and even named a main road in Tbilisi after Bush. At the White House last March, Saakashvili expressed his gratitude to the president for having "really put Georgia firmly on the world's freedom map."

Nevertheless, when push came to shove, the American response to the Russian invasion of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was all rhetoric in large measure because the U.S. was already over-extended in Iraq and Afghanistan and had neither the power, the strategic necessity nor the political capital to take on the Russians over Georgia – and the Russians knew it. The weak U.S. response to the Russian invasion has not only diminished U.S. standing in the region, but arguably as a world power as well. As a friend and ally, Georgia was abandoned to the mercies of the Russian war machine and the other former Soviet republics have no doubt taken note of this.

In many ways, the war was inevitable. Post-World War II Western strategy toward the Soviet Union and its satellites was shaped by George Kennan’s 1947 Cold War doctrine of “containment”. For decades, the U.S. alliances that encircled the Soviet bloc sent a clear message to Stalin and his successors: “Not one more inch!” With the fall of the Soviet Union, that policy was extended under the Clinton and Bush administrations to the former Soviet republics but was propelled by the idea of promoting democratic change and stability in the newly-freed countries that border Russia. While the Russians continually questioned Western motives for this expansion, there was little they could do about it. Over the last few years, however, a newly empowered and resurgent oligarchy under Russian nationalist Prime Minister Vladimir Putin began to see these American overtures as an existential threat. Russia: The New Order Cometh >>> By Mark Silverberg | August 29, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>

How Sweet, Mr President!
Kissin’ and a-huggin’ with Muslims seems to have been par for the course for President George W Bush during his presidency. What then, I wonder, can we expect from a ‘President Barack Hussein Obama’ with his Muslim brothers (even if only former) if he manages to get the ‘crown’?

Photo of President Bush holding hands with Mahmoud Abbas courtesy of Die Presse
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)

Delicious or What, George? Who Says the West Doesn’t Love the East?
Photo of President Bush kissing King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia courtesy of Live Leak
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

White House: Thousands Greet Pope Benedict on His Birthday
Photo of Pope Benedict at the White House courtesy of the BBC
Video: Happy Birthday Holy Father!
BBC: Thousands of guests have welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to the White House for his meeting with President George W Bush.

The Pope was greeted with a singing of Happy Birthday on the day he turned 81.

Mr Bush said the Pope's message that "God is love" was needed to "save man from falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism".

Pope Benedict said he had come as a friend of the US and urged Americans to use their faith to inspire "reasoned, responsible and respectful dialogue".

This was the first visit by a pope to the White House in almost 30 years.

There were huge cheers as the Pope and Mr Bush took the podium for the national anthems of the Holy See and the US.

The Pope was treated to two Happy Birthdays, the first an impromptu rendition before a more formal chorus later. Famed soprano Kathleen Battle also sang The Lord's Prayer.

Mr Bush quoted St Augustine in greeting the Pope with the words "peace be with you".

Mr Bush said: "In a world where some no longer believe that we can distinguish between simple right and wrong, we need your message to reject this dictatorship of relativism."

He added: "In a world where some evoke the name of God to justify acts of terror and murder and hate, we need your message that God is love."

Such a message would "save man from falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism," he said. White House Thousands Greet Pope >>>

BBC:
The Pope’s Visit to the US in Pictures >>>

THE DAWNING OF A NEW DARK AGE:
Happy Birthday, Holy Father! >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Bush’s Mideast Pipe Dream
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The American president came to the Middle East in an attempt to deliver peace. Instead, George W. Bush's visit to the Holy Land has only deepened the divide between the Israelis and Palestinians.

US President George W. Bush is an optimist. That's why he's visiting the Middle East this week in order to speed up the peace process that he started in Annapolis (more...) at the end of 2007.

He wants to use the 12 months left to him in the White House to solve the 60-year-old Middle East conflict, he says, and he gushes bravely about a two-state solution -- with Israel and Palestine living in harmony, side by side.

But during his visit, which ends Friday, he has achieved exactly the opposite. Instead of bridging the divide between the Israelis and the Palestinians, he has made it wider. Neither has he accelerated the peace process. Instead, he has merely managed to make it more difficult. On the red carpet that was laid out for him in the Holy Land, he has managed to bury the Palestinian state before it was even born.

Take, for example, what Bush said at a joint press conference with President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday: The US president promised the Palestinians their own state within a year. He said he was convinced that a peace accord would be signed before the end of his term in January 2009.

Speaking at Abbas' side, Bush said that he was confident that "with proper help, the state of Palestine will emerge." Sources close to the negotiations said that Bush had offered to visit the region again if this was required to give the peace process fresh impetus. And the White House also announced on Thursday that Bush had named Lt. Gen. William Fraser as his envoy to monitor the Israeli-Palestinian "road map" peace plan.

But Bush has expectations that cannot be fulfilled in the madness of the Middle East; in fact, they just come across as naïve. He appears to assume that some kind of inner compulsion to find a harmonious solution to conflicts must exist -- a view that is not supported by history. Bush’s Mideast Pipe Dream >>> By Pierre Heumann

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

The Profligate President
Photo of President Bush courtesy of The Times
TIMESONLINE: President Bush yesterday asked Congress for another multibillion-dollar slice of military funding, spending which should ensure the cost of the Iraq war rises over the $500 billion mark early in the new year.

His request for an additional $42 billion brings the total budget for Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the financial year beginning this month to $190 billion. Spending has risen from $8 billion a month last year to a projected $15 billion. President Bush presses Congress for extra $42 bn to fund wars (more) By Tom Baldwin in Washington

Mark Alexander

Bush and the King


Mark Alexander

US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Recognizes Ramadan and Says Americans Have the Deepest Respect for Muslims
Question: Is this like the deep respect Muslims have for Americans and other infidels?

ARAB NEWS: RIYADH, 10 October 2007 — US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ford M. Fraker termed the US House of Representatives resolution recognizing Ramadan and expressing the deepest respect to Muslims in the United States as “historic”.

The resolution was adopted in the House by a vote of 376-0 last week for the first time.

“We welcome the resolution from the US House of Representatives recognizing the holy month of Ramadan and expressing respect to Muslims,” said Fraker. “This message of friendship is particularly appropriate here, the home of Islam’s two holiest mosques.”

The American envoy noted that “this resolution confirms that Congress and the American people are fully supportive of these efforts.”

The resolution, which acknowledges the importance of Muslims in America, is the first of its kind, introduced by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and co-sponsored by 30 legislators.

The resolution was strongly backed by Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim to be elected to US Congress.

Fraker underscored the US Embassy’s community outreach efforts, including hosting iftar meals during Ramadan.

“Moreover, we hosted Imam Muhammad Bashar Arafat, who spoke to Saudi audiences about Muslim life in America and shared his peaceful messages of cooperation and dialogue between cultures,” he said.

“We would like to take this opportunity to wish your readers Ramadan Kareem and Eid Mubarak,” he added.

A statement posted at the US Embassy website said that US President George W. Bush has expressed happiness on the adoption of this resolution.

Bush said that the Islamic religion “is a great religion that preaches peace,” and that Americans are free “to worship any way they see fit.” US Envoy Emphasizes Bid to Bridge Social Gap (more) By M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Arab News

Mark Alexander

Mollycoddling Muslims
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: At Wednesday’s rededication ceremony of the Saudi-funded Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., President Bush missed a perfect opportunity to repudiate apologism for radical Islam, and instead announced his latest plan to get the Muslim world to stop hating America: appoint a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Bush praised the OIC, saying, “We admire and thank those Muslims who have denounced what the Secretary General of the OIC called ‘radical fringe elements who pretend that they act in the name of Islam.’” The special envoy’s mission, Bush said, would be to “listen and learn” to OIC ambassadors.

While this may sound nice, it is rooted in complete ignorance of the rampant radicalism, pro-terrorist, and anti-American sentiments routinely found in statements by the OIC and its leaders, including referring to “Islamophobia” — and not the mass slaughter of innocents in the name of Islam — the “worst form of terrorism,” as OIC did last May. Radical Outreach: Bush coddles American apologists for radical Islam (more) By Steve Emerson

Mark Alexander

Bush Rededicates Islamic Center of Washington
Fact Sheet: Strengthening Our Friendship with the Muslim Community Worldwide

THE PRESIDENT: Imam, thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me. I bring my personal respect to you, sir. And I appreciate your friendship. I do want to thank the governors of the Islamic Center. I welcome the Ambassadors. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate other distinguished guests who are here. It is an honor to join you at this rededication ceremony.

As the Imam mentioned, half a century has passed since one of our great leaders welcomed the Islamic Center into our nation's family of faith. Dedicating this site, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offered America's hand in friendship to Muslims around the world. He asked that together we commit ourselves "to peaceful progress of all men under one God."

Today we gather, with friendship and respect, to reaffirm that pledge -- and to renew our determination to stand together in the pursuit of freedom and peace. We come to express our appreciation for a faith that has enriched civilization for centuries. We come in celebration of America's diversity of faith and our unity as free people. And we hold in our hearts the ancient wisdom of the great Muslim poet, Rumi: "The lamps are different, but the light is the same."

Moments like this dedication help clarify who Americans are as a people, and what we wish for the world. We live in a time when there are questions about America and her intentions. For those who seek a true understanding of our country, they need to look no farther than here. This Muslim center sits quietly down the road from a synagogue, a Lutheran church, a Catholic parish, a Greek Orthodox chapel, a Buddhist temple -- each with faithful followers who practice their deeply held beliefs and live side by side in peace.

This is what freedom offers: societies where people can live and worship as they choose without intimidation, without suspicion, without a knock on the door from the secret police. The freedom of religion is the very first protection offered in America's Bill of Rights. It is a precious freedom. It is a basic compact under which people of faith agree not to impose their spiritual vision on others, and in return to practice their own beliefs as they see fit. This is the promise of our Constitution, and the calling of our conscience, and a source of our strength.

The freedom to worship is so central to America's character that we tend to take it personally when that freedom is denied to others. Our country was a leading voice on behalf of the Jewish refusniks in the Soviet Union. Americans joined in common cause with Catholics and Protestants who prayed in secret behind an Iron Curtain. America has stood with Muslims seeking to freely practice their beliefs in places such as Burma and China. President Bush Rededicates Islamic Center of Washington (more)

Mark Alexander

The World Turns Against Our American Friends Because of Bush, Says Pew Institute Survey Co-Chaired by Madeleine Albright
TIMESONLINE: Global distrust of President Bush is mutating into an almost worldwide sentiment of antiAmericanism, according to the world’s most comprehensive poll of international opinion, published yesterday.

The Pew Institute’s survey of 45,239 people in 47 nations shows support for the US has dropped sharply among traditional allies in the West, including Britain, as well as substantial declines elsewhere in Latin America, Eastern Europe, China and the Middle East.

It found “a broad and deepening dislike of American values and a global backlash against the spread of American ideas” – although US technology and popular culture is still held in high regard.

Pluralities in most countries now express distaste for notions of democracy promoted by the US, blame it for contributing to global inequality and “hurting the world’s environment”, while also disliking the way American businesses operate. World crisis of confidence in Bush (more)

Mark Alexander

Bush in Albania: His Watch Is Stolen
With thanks to Jihad Watch for drawing this to my attention:


Rätselraten um Bushs verschwundene Uhr

Mark Alexander

Hero’s Welcome for Bush in Albania
BBC: President George W Bush has become the first US leader to visit Albania, where he enjoyed a hero's welcome. Bush greeted as hero in Albania (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Bush met as a hero in Albania

Mark Alexander

Bandar Bush and All That


Mark Alexander

The Republican Party is in No Partying Mood

Photo of Bush in sober mood courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: A "sobered" George W Bush was told by Republican allies yesterday that his party would desert him if the situation in Iraq did not improve dramatically and he continued to keep troops there.

For a White House where bad news is often branded as defeatism, the 90-minute meeting with 11 centrist Republicans was remarkably blunt as they told him that there had to be discernable progress by September. Republicans warn Bush he risks being deserted (more) By Toby Harnden

TIMESONLINE: Bush begs for more time as Republican revolt gathers pace

LE FIGARO: Le soutien de Bush s'effrite chez les républicains

Mark Alexander

”United We Must Always Remain”, says Queen

Photo of The Queen and President Bush at the White House State Banquet courtesy of the BBC

"Administrations in your country and governments in mine may come and go, but talk we will, listen we have to, disagree from time to time we may, but united we must always remain” – The Queen

BBC: The Queen has delivered a strong defence of the special relationship between Britain and the US.

At a White House banquet, she said "the lesson of my lifetime" had been that the partnership "was always to be reckoned with" in defending freedom.

WATCH BBC VIDEO: Bush welcomes Queen in US

Queen praises UK-US partnership

Mark Alexander