Sunday, March 14, 2010
THE OBSERVER: It has been fun watching the man known as 'Bush's brain' squirm on the TV talkshows as he tries to sell his self-serving memoir
For Karl Rove's legions of liberal detractors – who did not manage to lay a hand on him while he was in power – it has been a case of too little, too late.
But watching the man dubbed "Bush's brain" take to the media circuit to flog his self-serving memoir Courage and Consequence has at last provided a tiny bit of satisfying blood sport at Rove's expense. It has not been a pretty sight and is one that Rove, no doubt, will blame on the natural liberal tendencies of America's media classes. Yet it has been fun watching a man whose name became a byword for brutal, dirty politics go cap in hand around the talk shows and get a thorough roasting.
Leading the charge was normally genial daytime TV host Matt Lauer, who laid into Rove over everything from the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina to his role in the leak of the identity of CIA spy Valerie Plame. "Some are saying this is 500 pages of you rewriting history," Lauer said. He was wrong. It's 608 pages. >>> Paul Harris in New York | Sunday, March 14, 2010
THE OBSERVER: Former prime minister builds network of Christian allies as he prepares to launch a religious 'offensive' in North America
Tony Blair is preparing to launch a "faith offensive" across the United States over the next year, after building up relationships with a network of influential religious leaders and faith organisations.
With Afghanistan and Iraq casting a shadow over his popularity at home in Britain, Blair's focus has increasingly shifted across the Atlantic, to where the nexus of faith and power is immutable and he is feted like a rock star.
According to the annual accounts of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, a UK-based charity that promotes cohesion between the major faiths, the foundation is to develop a US arm that will pursue a host of faith-based projects. The accounts show that his foundation has an impressive – and, in at least one case, controversial – set of faith contacts. Sitting on some £4.5m in funds as of April last year, mostly gathered through donations, it is now well placed to make its voice heard.
The foundation's advisory council of religious leaders includes Rick Warren, powerful founder of the California-based Saddleback church. It attracts congregations of nearly 20,000 and is reportedly one of the largest in the US. Warren, who has addressed the UN and the World Economic Forum in Davos, has been named one of the "15 world leaders who matter most" and one of the "100 most influential people in the world".
His influence was confirmed in December 2008 when Barack Obama chose him to give the invocation at his presidential inauguration. But the decision angered many liberals, who see Warren as an opponent of gay rights and abortion on demand; a prominent alliance with Warren is likely to attract similar attacks on the former British prime minister. >>> Jamie Doward and Paul Harris | Sunday, March 14, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The influence of Muslim fundamentalists in east London is being challenged, says Andrew Gilligan.
In the two weeks since the Islamic Forum of Europe were exposed by The Sunday Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches as hardline fundamentalists secretly infiltrating the political system, they have been furiously protesting their “proven track record of community cohesion”. Last week, however, the organisation showed its true face.
“We’ve tracked you down,” said the IFE’s community affairs co-ordinator, Azad Ali, in a webcast targeting the Channel 4 reporter “Atif”, who went undercover at the IFE’s headquarters, the East London Mosque, filming the group’s true views – and its boasts that it controlled the local Tower Hamlets council. “Yes, Atif, we’ve got a picture of you and a lot more than you thought we had. We’ve tracked you down to different places. And if people are gonna turn what I’ve just said into a threat, that’s their fault, innit?”
Mr Ali’s words sit strangely with his role as an official advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, and to the police, but perhaps his annoyance is understandable. The undercover reporters filmed him saying: “Democracy, if it means not implementing the sharia, no one’s going to agree with that.”
The reporters found that, far from its protestations of being merely a “social welfare organisation”, the IFE is an organised political movement dedicated to creating an “Islamic social and political order” through “entryism” into mainstream democratic institutions. >>> Andrew Gilligan | Saturday, March 13, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Sir Elton John has disclosed that a former lover threw himself to his death under a passing lorry because he could not reconcile his homosexuality with his Christian beliefs.
The singer, 62, said he was deeply traumatised by the suicide of the man, with whom he had been involved in a relationship before he "married" David Furnish, a film-maker 15 years his junior, in 2005.
"Years back I had a relationship, and I had absolutely no idea in the world he was going to do this... he threw himself under a truck," Sir Elton said. "There was so much grief."
Mr Furnish told The Sunday Telegraph that the lover, whom he declined to name, had taken his life because he was traumatised by the clash between his Christianity and his sexual inclinations.
"He was so tortured by the conflicting views between his sexuality and his strong religious beliefs that he chose to take his own life," said Furnish, whom Sir Elton "married" in a ceremony at Windsor Guildhall on the first day that civil partnerships could be performed in England. "It is very sad indeed."
Mr Furnish, a former advertising executive, added that "out of respect" for the dead man's family he would not name him. >>> Richard Eden, Deputy Editor, Mandrake | Saturday, March 13, 2010
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: David Cameron has angered the French government by apparently mocking the diminutive height of Nicolas Sarkozy.
The Conservative leader is said to have made a remark about "hidden dwarfs" whilst discussing a photograph of himself and Mr Sarkozy, who is seven inches shorter than him.
The disclosure comes after it emerged that George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, also made a quip about the French president's stature at a conference hosted by The Spectator.
Mr Sarkozy, who is 5ft 5in, is understood to have made an official complaint to the British government after Mr Osborne made a show of removing a stool from behind the lectern at which he was about to speak and joked it was the "Sarkozy box". >>> | Sunday, March 14, 2010
*Tut, tut, Mr Cameron! Weren’t you taught better manners than this at Eton? Furthermore, you have just set back Anglo-French relations by a decade. – Mark
MAIL ONLINE: A British businessman facing jail in Dubai after he was accused of kissing a woman in public has vowed to fight the charges and clear his name.
Marketing executive Ayman Najafi, 24, and British tourist Charlotte Lewis, 25, were accused of kissing on the lips and drinking alcohol after a fellow diner reported them to the authorities.
The pair pleaded guilty to drinking alcohol - and were fined £180 - but said they only kissed on the cheek and are appealing against breaking the country's morality laws. >>> Stephanie Condron | Saturday, March 13, 2010
NZZ am SONNTAG: Barbara Rosenkranz möchte Österreichs Bundespräsidentin werden. Ihre rechtsradikalen Ansichten gehen selbst einigen ihrer FPÖ-Parteifreunde zu weit.
Die FPÖ-Kandidatin für die Wahl des österreichischen Bundespräsidenten am 25. April, Barbara Rosenkranz, bezeichnet sich unspektakulär als «Nationalkonservative». Aber selbst der Chef der sehr rechtsgerichteten FPÖ, Heinz-Christian Strache, der in seinen populistischen Hetzreden noch nie ein Blatt vor den Mund genommen hat, scheint die von ihm nominierte Kandidatin inzwischen für unkontrollierbar, ihre Ansichten für kontraproduktiv zu halten. In Umfragen prophezeien 29 Prozent der befragten Österreicher, dass Rosenkranz die Nation spalten, und gar 41 Prozent, dass sie dem Ruf des Landes schaden werde. >>> Charles E. Ritterband, Wien | Sonntag, 14. März 2010
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Reports that the marriage of France’s first couple was in trouble sprang from just two postings on the social networking site
When Nicolas Sarkozy, the French leader, and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, hosted a state banquet for Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, at the Elysée Palace recently it was not only Carla’s figure-hugging dress that caught people’s attention.
After dinner, in an unusual departure from custom, the Sarkozys failed to show up for coffee in the drawing room with their guests. Something must have been wrong, one of those present later told a foreign diplomat: they must be having a row.
Spare a thought for “Sarko” and his première dame, a singer and former top model. Ever since they met at a dinner party, and married just over two years ago, the country has been wondering how long it will last. A president known for a roving eye, a willowy beauty renowned as a “man-eater” — to many it seemed destined to end in tears.
No wonder, then, that their body language, and everything else about them, is scrutinised so intensely: the merest detail is enough to set off the gossips. If Carla appears at the president’s side in heels, as she did for the Russian banquet, she must be signalling her displeasure by towering over the pint-sized Sarkozy. Mustn’t she?
In the grand old days of Versailles, it would take weeks for gossip to filter through the ramparts to the hungry masses outside. Today the internet is being used like a battering ram against the high palace walls.
In the age of Twitter, rumours flash around the world in a second and can end up in newspapers, regardless of whether they are true. It has prompted debate among lawyers about whether victims can pursue Twitterers, and if simply relaying a defamatory tweet should also be punishable under the law.
Even before the Medvedev dinner 12 days ago, rumours were flying in cyberspace. Carla was having an affair, it was said, with Benjamin Biolay, a 37-year-old singer, and had been on holiday with him to Thailand. A jealous Sarkozy had sent a jet to bring her home.
That was not all. Twitterers went on to say that the president was consoling himself in the arms of Chantal Jouanno, his junior ecology minister, a karate champion. By the time the British press got hold of the story last Wednesday, the French first couple were reported to be on the verge of rupture.
At a press conference with Gordon Brown, the prime minister, in London last Friday, Sarkozy was asked about the rumours. He glowered at the offending journalist: “I certainly don’t have time to deal with these wild imaginings, not even half a fraction of a second. I don’t even know why you use your speaking time to put such an idiotic question.”
For her part, Jouanno, who is married with three children — to whom she described her job as being minister “for the birds and the bees” — is threatening to sue any publication that refers to any affair between her and Sarkozy. Biolay has likewise threatened to sue.
So how did a few bits of internet gossip make global headlines? And what, if anything other than pure fantasy, is behind all the tweets? >>> Matthew Campbell in Paris | Sunday, March 14, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Plans to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a 300-strong, wholly elected second chamber are to be unveiled by ministers in a key political move ahead of the general election.
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is this weekend consulting cabinet colleagues on a blueprint which would represent the biggest change to the way Britain is governed for several decades.
The proposals, which have been leaked to The Sunday Telegraph and which are expected to be announced soon, would sweep away centuries of tradition and set ministers on a collision course with the current 704-member House of Lords, which is resolutely opposed to having elected members.
Ministers are ready to announce their plans, which follow years of fruitless cross-party discussions and several votes in the House of Commons, in a bid to wrong-foot the Tories with polling day less than two months away.
Labour's plan is to provoke elements inside the Conservative Party to object to the reforms – which would allow it to paint David Cameron as wedded to old ideas of privilege.
The proposed changes also follow various House of Lords-related controversies, including the recent furore over the admission by Lord Ashcroft, the Tory deputy chairman, that he was a "non-dom."
Members of the new-style chamber will have to be both UK residents and domiciled here for tax purposes. >>> Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor | Saturday, March 13, 2010
*If this rotten Labour government thinks it will rid Britain of privilege by abolishing the House of Lords, it had better think again. All that will be achieved is that a group of privileged patricians will be replaced by group of overpaid privileged plebeians. It will achieve nothing except denude Britain of its wonderful heritage and incomparable traditions. – © Mark
Saturday, March 13, 2010
THE WASHINGTON POST: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday about the state of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, demanding that Israel take immediate steps to show it is interested in renewing efforts to achieve a Middle East peace agreement.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley described the nearly 45-minute phone conversation in unusually undiplomatic terms, signaling that the close allies are facing their deepest crisis in two decades after the embarrassment suffered by Vice President Biden this week when Israel announced during his visit that it plans to build 1,600 housing units in a disputed area of Jerusalem.
Clinton called Netanyahu "to make clear the United States considered the announcement a deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship and counter to the spirit of the vice president's trip," Crowley said. Clinton, he said, emphasized that "this action had undermined trust and confidence in the peace process and in America's interests."
From the start of his tenure, President Obama identified a Middle East peace deal as critical to U.S. national security, but his efforts have been hampered by the administration's missteps and the deep mistrust between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Last fall, he softened his demand for a full freeze on settlement construction, accepting a limited 10-month moratorium that did not include the East Jerusalem area where the construction announced this week is to take place. Clinton at the time hailed the Israeli plan as "unprecedented."
Special envoy George J. Mitchell has struggled to relaunch peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Last week, he got the two sides to agree to indirect talks, with Mitchell shuttling between them, but the Israeli announcement has imperiled that development. Rising Palestinian anger led Israeli forces on Friday to seal off the West Bank and post riot squads around Jerusalem's Old City and Arab neighborhoods.
U.S. officials were especially furious about the announcement because they thought they had reached a private understanding with Netanyahu that even though East Jerusalem was not officially included in the moratorium, he would prevent any provocative actions there. Its release during Biden's trip, intended as a fence-mending mission, was seen as another slap.
"The announcement of the settlements on the very day that the vice president was there was insulting," Clinton told CNN on Friday.
Obama had approved Clinton's call, sitting down with her during their weekly meeting Thursday to determine the language she would use. "The secretary and the president worked through together the specific points she would be making to Prime Minister Netanyahu," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said. Biden also called Netanyahu on Friday to reinforce the message, officials said, and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was summoned to a meeting with Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg.
Some analysts applauded the administration's tough stance, saying it may jar the right-leaning Israeli government into making gestures to the Palestinians. But others said Clinton's call risked emboldening Arab and Palestinian officials to make new demands before talks start, if only so as not to seem softer than the Americans. >>> Glenn Kessler, Washington Post Staff Writer | Saturday, March 13, 2010
ALWAYS ON WATCH: New and startling information has been released concerning President Barack Obama’s spiritual life and his close relationship with ardent Islamists.
Mr. Obama, who rarely attends public church services, turns often to Muslims and Islamic sympathizers for prayer and spiritual and moral discussion.
The President, according to Daniel Burke, writing for the Washington D.C. based Religion News Service, prays on the phone with individuals from around the country “to frame his policies in moral terms.”
One of Mr. Obama’s prayer partners is Rashad Hussain, an Islamic lawyer and critic of America’s alleged “terror prosecutions” of his fellow Muslims.
Mr. Obama has appointed Mr. Hussain to serve as his deputy associate counsel and special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations.
The mission of the OIC is to safeguard and protect “the interests of the Muslim world,” should be of serious concern to Congress and the American public.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Hussein has a history of participating in events connected with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Chicago daily describes the Muslim Brotherhood as “the world’s most influential Islamic fundamentalist group” whose goal is to create Muslim states throughout the world.
In 1991, Mohamed Akram, a prominent leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the members of his radical organization “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ’sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” >>> Always On Watch | Friday, March 12, 2010
From this source, citing The Last Crusade (Dr. Paul L. Williams)
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