Washington prudent face aux inconnues de Pyongyang

LE FIGARO: Hillary Clinton a appelé à une transition «stable et pacifique» en Corée du Nord.

La mort soudaine du «cher leader» nord-coréen complique l'agenda de Barack Obama dans la région. L'Administration américaine devait prendre ce lundi d'importantes décisions sur la reprise des négociations sur le dossier nucléaire et l'octroi d'aide alimentaire au «royaume ermite». Ces arbitrages devraient, au minimum, être retardés.

La Maison-Blanche a réagi avec prudence à l'annonce du décès de Kim Jong-il, se gardant de commenter la disparition du dictateur. «Nous exprimons à nouveau l'espoir d'une amélioration de nos relations avec le peuple de Corée du Nord et restons profondément soucieux de son bien-être», a indiqué lundi soir Hillary Clinton, espérant une transition «stable et pacifique». Washington stationne toujours 29.000 GI en Corée du Sud.

Dès minuit, dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi, Barack Obama a appelé le président sud-coréen, Lee Myung-bak. L'Administration est également en contact étroit avec les autorités japonaises. Le président s'est toutefois gardé pour l'heure d'offrir ses condoléances à la Corée du Nord. S'il devait faire un tel geste, cela indiquerait une volonté de saisir l'opportunité de la succession à Pyongyang pour tendre la main au nouveau leader désigné, Kim Jong-un. Mais cela pourrait se révéler prématuré, compte tenu de l'incertitude qui enveloppe l'avenir politique de la Corée du Nord et les intentions du «grand successeur». » | Par Adèle Smith | lundi 19 décembre 2011

Barack Obama Volunteers at Thanksgiving Food Bank
The US President Barack Obama and his family hand out food at a local Food Bank on the eve of Thanksgiving.

Read short article here | Thursday, November 24, 2011

Protest in Washington: Demonstranten attackieren Smithsonian-Museum
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Sie wollten offenbar gegen eine Drohnen-Ausstellung protestieren - und gerieten mit dem Wachpersonal aneinander: Rund 200 Menschen haben versucht, in das Smithsonian-Museum in Washington vorzudringen. Die Sicherheitsleute setzten Reizgas ein, das Gebäude wurde geschlossen.

Washington - Die Aktion begann als friedlicher Protest und eskalierte in einem Polizeieinsatz. In Washington haben am Samstag rund 200 Demonstranten versucht, das Luft- und Raumfahrtmuseum in der US-Hauptstadt zu stürmen. Wie eine Museumssprecherin sagte, wurden sie am Eingang von Wachleuten gestoppt. » | jok/dapd | Sonntag 09. Oktober 2011

President Obama Addresses the 15th Annual Human Rights Campaign National Dinner
The Human Rights Campaign is proud to again welcome to its National Dinner President Obama, who last addressed the audience in 2009. The 15th Annual National Dinner drew over 3,000 people to the Washington Convention Center.

Read article here

US Politicians Talk Bahrain
Some US politicians are now calling for the White House to take action against Bahrain for its human rights violations. Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett reports from Washington D.C.

Prince Charles Tells America to Cut Down on Steaks ... for the Sake of the World
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: America's appetite for beef is jeopardising the world's water supply, the Prince of Wales said during a visit to the US.

In a speech in Washington, the Prince said that the need for vast amounts of irrigation in industrialised food production was threatening to deplete reserves of the "magical substance we have taken for granted for so long".

"For every pound of beef produced in the industrial system, it takes two thousand gallons of water," he told the Future of Food conference at Georgetown University.

"That is a lot of water and there is plenty of evidence that the Earth cannot keep up with the demand." » | Jon Swaine, in Washington | Thursday, May 05, 2011

U.S. Sends Another Top Official To Saudi Arabia
NPR: The Obama administration is sending another official to Saudi Arabia to try to smooth over relations damaged by the so-called Arab Spring. The Saudis think the U.S. is being naive about the democracy movements and canceled recent plans for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to visit. They hosted, but only briefly, Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week, and this week it is National Security Adviser Tom Donilon's turn. Analysts say it will be difficult for the U.S. to support democracy in the Middle East and keep this strategic alliance on track. Read the transcript » | Michele Kelemen | Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Barack Obama Complains about Lack of Privacy as President
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has complained about the loss of privacy that comes with being leader of the free world, regretting the loss of simple pleasures such as a long walk or a trip to the car wash or supermarket.

"I just miss – I miss being anonymous," he said. "I miss Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, not shaving, getting into my car with my girls, driving to the supermarket, squeezing the fruit, getting my car washed, taking walks. I can't take a walk."

His dream, he said, was to "go through Central Park and watch folks passing by ... spend the day watching people – I miss that".

Faced with simmering criticism for playing more golf than most previous occupants of the White House, he explained that the sport was simply the best way of getting away from it all.

"It's the only excuse I have to get outside for four hours at a stretch," he told Hearst magazines. » | Alex Spillius, Washington | Monday, April 11, 2011

From what you say, Obama, you don't deserve to occupy the White House. You really should have thought about these things before running for president, especially the loss of privacy. Any old fool could have told you about the loss of privacy!

How on earth can someone wish to become President of the USA and retain their anonymity? This truly beggars belief!

The fact of the matter is that you were too young and inexperienced for this most prestigious of positions. You were a greenhorn. A greenhorn unworthy of the high office that was bestowed upon you. Now, the poor Americans must suffer.

Most people would give their eye teeth to become the man that you now are: the President of the US of A. But you find it within yourself to complain about the restrictions of the position. How pathetic you sound, Mr. President!

How nice it would have been if you had chosen to go walk in Central Park instead of running for president. That way, you would have spared many people many a sleepless night.

Do yourself a favour and renounce your chance of running this time. Many will thank you for it. – © Mark

The 'Arab Spring' Uprisings of 2011 Are Being Hailed in Washington as the 'Al-Jazeera Moment'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are among the millions of Americans turning to Al-Jazeera English.

Walking back from the White House this week, Abderrahim Foukara, Washington bureau chief for Al-Jazeera television, could have been forgiven for pinching himself. He’d just met senior aides to President Barack Obama who had lavished praise on the Arab television network.

“They told us that during Egypt basically Al-Jazeera English was all they watched to try to make sense of what was going on,” he said, taking off his overcoat in the channel’s bureau on K Street, the boulevard that houses the city’s top lobbyists. The President, they made clear, had been one of those glued to the screen.

On Capitol Hill four weeks ago, Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State, delivered what amounted to an advertisement for Al-Jazeera to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: “Viewership of Al-Jazeera is going up in the United States because it's real news,” she said.

“You may not agree with it, but you feel like you're getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news.”

In London, where Moroccan-born Foukara worked for the BBC World Service for nearly a decade before moving to the US in 2001, David Cameron has also made clear he is a fan. The Prime Minister has told friends that he considers Al-Jazeera to be essential viewing, the only network that gives the texture of what the Arab Street is thinking. » | Toby Harnden | Saturday, April 09, 2011

National Gallery Visitor Attacks Gauguin Painting, Officials Say
THE WASHINGTON POST: A painting at the Gauguin exhibit at the National Gallery was attacked last week by a gallery visitor, provoking considerable commotion, according to other museum visitors and gallery officials.

Screaming “This is evil,” a woman tried to pull Gauguin’s “Two Tahitian Women” from a gallery wall Friday and banged on the picture’s clear plastic covering, said Pamela Degotardi of New York, who was there.

“She was really pounding it with her fists,” Degotardi said. “It was like this weird surreal scene that one doesn’t expect at the National Gallery.”

Gallery spokeswoman Deborah Ziska said no damage to the 1899 painting was immediately apparent after the 4:45 p.m. incident. But she said a more thorough examination will be conducted Monday.

In the painting, both breasts of one woman are exposed, as is one of the second woman’s breasts.

The woman who allegedly attacked the painting was “immediately restrained and detained” by the museum’s federal protection ser­vices officers, who charged her with destruction of property and attempted theft, Ziska said in a statement. » | R. Smith and Martin Weil | Monday, April 04, 2011

PINK NEWS: Woman attacks ‘evil homosexual’ Gauguin painting: A woman who attacked a Paul Gauguin painting in Washington DC’s National Gallery claimed she did it because it is “very homosexual”. » | Jessica Geen | Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Man Arrested Over 'Terror Plot' to Bomb Washington DC Trains
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A naturalised American citizen born in Pakistan has been arrested over bomb plots on railway stations in the US capital that could have caused mass casualties, the FBI said.

Farooque Ahmed was arrested Wednesday and charged with trying to help people he believed were al-Qaida operatives planning to bomb subway stations around the nation's capital. Photo: The Daily Telegraph
Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Virginia, was charged with trying to help people posing as al-Qaeda operatives planning to launch simultaneous bomb attacks on railway stations around Washington DC.

The public was never in danger because FBI agents were aware of Ahmed's activities and monitored him throughout, the agency said. And the people that Ahmed thought were al-Qaeda operatives were actually individuals who "worked on behalf of the government in this matter," according to a federal law enforcement official who requested anonymity.

The arrest appeared to have all the hallmarks of a sting operation, but the FBI refused to confirm this.

Ahmed faces 50 years in prison for charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organisation, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Thousands Turn Out for Beck Rally
FOX NEWS: Glenn Beck holds 'Restoring Honor' Rally in Washington, D.C.

Glenn Beck: America Is Turning "Back to God"


NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Glenn Beck says America is wandering in the darkness because of 'divisive politics': WASHINGTON - Glenn Beck held a huge rally Saturday to "celebrate America" - and himself - at the Lincoln Memorial, drawing scores of Tea Party faithful into a swirling debate on race and politics. >>> Richard Sisk, Daily News Washington Bureau | Saturday, August 28, 2010

Washington DC: Hundreds Gather for Snowball Fight

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi in Exile: 'I Can't Sit and Say Nothing as Iran Suffers'
THE TELEGRAPH: Crown Prince of Iran tells Simon Heffer he is ready to help bring change to his country but says the West needs to increase pressure on the Tehran regime.

Reza Pahlavi, son of the ex-Shah of Iran. Photo: The Telegraph
Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran, and to his most devoted followers His Imperial Majesty the Shah, has been following the turbulent events of his country closer than perhaps any exile in the past five or six months.

I met him this week in a hotel room in Washington DC, near where he lives. While we talked over mineral water and fish and chips he pulled out his BlackBerry to see the latest news of the street protests in Tehran.

The repression of his fellow Iranians by the Ahmadinejad regime, still in place after the rigged elections of the summer, angers him profoundly.

"When I think that today we Iranians have to be represented by these people, warmongering, terrorist-sponsoring, Holocaust denying – can I possibly sit here and say nothing? I don't want anything in return. I do it because it is my duty," he says.

In exile since his father was deposed in 1979, the Prince, 49, remains the figurehead for the three or four million strong Iranian diaspora. Since the elections he has stepped up calls for civil disobedience by Iranians, and for external support for that. His many conduits of information from Iran tell him the regime is fragmenting, and he eagerly awaits a tipping point.

"The end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, of military juntas in South America, of the former Soviet Union – all of it came at the hands of the people of those nations themselves," he says. "None of this could have happened without foreign support – but that is not the same as an occupying army that comes in and changes a regime – I don't see how that can ever be legitimate."

The unhappy experience of foreign intervention in Iraq has further convinced him of the importance of avoiding it in Iran.

"Change must come to Iran by civil disobedience and non-violence. I stress that. We can't have change at any cost. It is ultimately a question of the sovereignty of that nation, and what happens must be the will of the people. But how do we determine that? There is an absence of public debate. There is an absence of the ballot box." >>> Simon Heffer | Saturday, November 07, 2009

Critique du livre : Iran : l’heure du choix – Entretiens avec Michel Taubmann >>> Mark Alexander | Thursday, September 03, 2009

Muslims to Turn Capitol Hill into Giant Outdoor Mosque
ISLAM IN ACTION: Inspired by President Obama's pro-Islamic speech in Cairo, approximately 50,000 Muslims are expecting to attend a prayer service outside Capitol Hill. They claim that this is about them loving America. If they really loved America as we know it, they would be in the streets protesting against the Sharia push, and the Islamic preachers of hate in America. But they do not, this is all about them pushing Islam on America.

Elizabeth mosque organizes national prayer event in D.C.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Jeff Diamant
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

A mosque in Elizabeth, Dar-ul-Islam, is spearheading a national prayer gathering next month in Washington, D.C., that organizers are billing as the first event of its kind -- organized prayer for tens of thousands of Muslims outside the U.S. Capitol building. >>> | Monday, August 31, 2009



Islam on Capitol Hill >>>

Hat tip: Always On Watch >>>

Russia 'Pinning Hopes on Obama'
Photo of Medvedev courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said he hopes US President-elect Barack Obama will help rebuild the strained relations between their two countries.

In a speech in Washington, Mr Medvedev said that a new US administration might be able to address what he described as a lack of "necessary mutual trust".

He said he wanted to meet Mr Obama soon after he takes office in January.

The Russian leader also indicated that Russia might accept a compromise over a planned US missile shield in Europe.

Two weeks ago, he said Moscow would neutralise the possible deployment by the US of a tracking radar in the Czech Republic and missile interceptors in Poland by stationing short-range missiles in its western enclave of Kaliningrad.

The US insists the shield is incapable of threatening Russia and is designed solely to guard against missile attacks by "rogue states". >>> | November 16, 2008

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Dubya and Abdullah by Gaslight!
Here we go again! The Prez and the King of Saudi Arabia enjoying a quiet stroll together hand-in-hand. How sweet! Who said we are experiencing a clash of civilizations? Photo courtesy of Die Presse
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Yes, They Can … Impose Sharia Law
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM: Sen. Barack Obama became president-elect on the uplifting, if inexact, slogan, "Yes, we can."

This week, there is growing evidence that people who have in mind doing away with the presidency of the United States - and all other aspects of our secular, democratic and constitutional form of government - are similarly convinced of their inevitable success. Judging by the sheer audacity of their agenda, "Yes, they can" would appear an apt description of the prospects for the Saudis and other champions of the totalitarian program they call Shariah.

In the run-up to an emergency summit outgoing President Bush has called to address the now-global financial crisis, the oil-rich Islamists of the Persian Gulf led by Saudi Arabia have not only established that their petrodollars are indispensable to any solution. They also seem to have secured the Bush administration's acquiescence to the sinister strings attached to any bailout of the West in which they might participate.

Specifically, the Saudis and their friends want the United States to join those, particularly in Europe, who have accommodated themselves to Shariah. No, we are assured, they aren't taking about the brutal theo-political-legal code that features such barbaric practices as beheadings, floggings, stonings, amputations, female genital mutilation and mysogeny more generally.

All they want, those in the know insist, is for Washington to encourage Wall Street - more and more of which is owned by the U.S. government - to embrace Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF). A Treasury Department seminar convened last week depicted SCF as nothing more than a kind of socially responsible investing vehicle that respects Muslim religious beliefs by eschewing interest-bearing transactions and those involving pork and "sin" stocks. So, what's the big deal? The Catholics, Methodists and Jews have their funds, why not the Muslims?

What makes the Shariah-Compliant Finance gambit both a big and troublesome "deal" is that, unlike these other religious traditions, Shariah's adherents are pursuing a global theocracy. They believe they must impose their agenda on everybody else, religious and secular alike, using violence if necessary. And SCF is explicitly described by leading practitioners as a complement to violent holy war: "financial jihad" and "jihad with money."

In other words, there is no such thing as free-standing Shariah-Compliant Finance. According to all of the recognized authorities and institutions of Islam, Shariah is a unified, indivisible program to which all faithful Muslims must adhere comprehensively.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the Saudis & Co. are not simply seeking to insinuate Shariah-Compliant Finance into our capital markets. They are also advancing creation of a parallel Shariah-governed society through various other means. >>> By Frank J Gaffney Jr | November 12, 2008

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Washington DC: Homophobic Muslims Brutally Attack Gay Men

Hat tip: Jihad Watch

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