Free Republic

How an Americanist devoted to destroying international alliances became the US envoy to the UNIn the heat of the battle over the Florida vote after the 2000 US presidential election, a burly, mustachioed man burst into the room where the ballots for Miami-Dade County were being tabulated, like John Wayne barging into a saloon for a shoot-out. "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count," drawled John Bolton. And those ballots from Miami-Dade were not counted.Now that same John Bolton has been named by President Bush as the US ambassador to the UN. "If I were...

WASHINGTON — President Obama ordered his advisers last August to produce a secret report on unrest in the Arab world, which concluded that without sweeping political changes, countries from Bahrain to Yemen were ripe for popular revolt, administration officials said Wednesday. Mr. Obama’s order, known as a Presidential Study Directive, identified likely flashpoints, most notably Egypt, and solicited proposals for how the administration could push for political change in countries with autocratic rulers who are also valuable allies of the United States, these officials said.

As the cliche goes, there are no coincidences in politics. Obama fundraiser group Code Pink just happened to have arrived in Cairo last week for the group’s ninth visit there in two years as part of its campaign to undermine the Mubarak government and help Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza. Code Pink and the media are trying to portray the leftist group's 'sudden' appearance in Cairo Wednesday as an act of courageous support for a democratic revolution. Nothing could be further from the truth.Code Pink protests the Mubarak government in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt. February 2, 2011. Code...

Perhaps it was just a little “Pillow Talk” with his Iranian wife!  Who is Dr. Mohamed El Baradei? A quick Google search yields the following general biographical information:Dr. ElBaradei is the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], an inter-governmental organization based in Vienna, and formed under the auspices of the United Nations in 1957. He was appointed to the office effective Dec. 1 1997, and re-appointed to a second term in Sept. 2001. El Baradi was born in Egypt in 1942. He gained a Bachelor’s degree in Law in 1962 at the University of Cairo, and a...

Dozens of Fatah supporters demonstrated in Ramallah on Wednesday in support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The demonstration is the first of its kind in the West Bank since the beginning of the uprising in Egypt. RELATED:For Palestinians, Egyptian unrest is bittersweet The demonstration coincided with the attack that was launched by Mubarak's supporters against anti-government protesters in Cairo. Sources in Ramallah said that the demonstration was initiated by the PA leadership, which has banned anti-Mubarak protests in the West Bank. The demonstrators shouted slogans condemning Egyptian opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei as a “CIA agent” and warned against foreign...

The United States urged Arab ally Egypt to pull "back from the brink" after security forces killed dozens of supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and opened a dangerous new phase in the army's confrontation with his Muslim Brotherhood... Washington, treading a fine line with an important Middle East ally and recipient of over $1 billion in military aid, urged the Egyptian security forces to respect the right to peaceful protest... U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to two senior members of Egypt's army-installed interim cabinet, expressing his "deep concern." "This is a pivotal moment for Egypt," he...

Egypt’s newly appointed interim prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi is to offer ministerial posts to members of the Muslim Brotherhood and to the hardline Islamist Nour Party, state media said on Tuesday. “There is no objection at all to including members of those two parties in the government,” a presidential spokesman said. The announcement followed el-Beblawi’s appointment as prime minister in a transitional government, as the authorities sought to steer the country to new parliamentary and presidential elections. Adli Mansour, acting head of state since massive demonstrations ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi out of office last week, also appointed former UN...

The Talk Shows July 7th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Jack Reed, D-R.I.; Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Egyptian reform leader Mohammed ElBaradei; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.; Janet Murguia, president and CEO, National Council of La Raza; Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.THIS WEEK (ABC): President George W. Bush and Laura Bush; Egypt's ambassador to the United States, Mohamed...

Presidential spokesman says several options on the table for interim PM, after earlier reports of ElBaradei appointment. A presidential spokesman has said that talks are continuing over the appointment of a new interim prime minister for Egypt, following earlier reports that opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei had been chosen. Authorities said there were several options for the position and acknowledged that there had been strong opposition to the possible appointment of ElBaradei.Earlier on Saturday, the Tamarod (rebellion) movement, which engineered mass protests culminating in the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday, had made the announcement of ElBaradei's appointment after talks with Adly Mansour, Egypt's new interim...

The White House has rejected "false claims" that it is working with specific parties in Egypt to "dictate" how the country should proceed following this week's military coup. Breaking its recent silence over events in Cairo, the Obama administration released a statement reiterating that the US was "not aligned with, and does not support, any particular Egyptian political party or group". The statement came as Egypt appeared to prepare to swear in Mohamed ELBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as an interim prime minister. The Nobel peace laureate had been tipped for the post following the...

“What’s the American interest to support the Muslim Brotherhood?” I asked. “Look,” explained one distinguished, older gentleman. "The West says one thing and does another. The Americans and Europeans speak so highly for democracy, freedom and human rights, but in the Middle East they support the most autocratic regimes, which object to all these principles. The Americans have three main interests in the area: Defending Israel, the oil in the Persian Gulf and control over the Suez Canal. They’ll do everything to maintain these interests, and therefore are in favor of the status quo. Mubarak guaranteed Israel’s security. Morsi did...

Secretary of State John Kerry was on his boat briefly on Wednesday, contrary to an earlier denial by the State Department, but was there only briefly and did not conduct official business while on board. “While he was briefly on his boat on Wednesday, Secretary Kerry worked around the clock all day including participating in the president’s meeting with his national security council," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday. Kerry also held calls "with Norwegian Foreign Minister Eade,Qatari Foreign Minister al-Attiyah, Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu, Egyptian Constitution Party President ElBaradei and five calls Ambassador Patterson on that day alone and since...

IkhwanOnline, the official Web site of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, posted an article on Thursday asserting that the country’s new interim president, Adly Mansour, is secretly Jewish. The article, since taken offline,suggested that Mansour was part of an American and Israeli conspiracy to install Mohamed ElBaradei, a former U.N. official and Egyptian opposition figure, as president. Mansour, the supreme justice of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, was sworn in as interim president on Thursday after the military announced that President Mohamed Morsi was no longer in charge. Morsi was a close ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has held large demonstrations protesting...

-excerpt- There’s no doubt that ElBaradei represents the smallest and least powerful of the main factions supporting big reform in post-Mubarak Egypt — the others being Team Muslim Brotherhood and Team Army. -excerpt- For the Army, ElBaradei is the closest they’ve got to a Terry MacAuliffe — love him or hate him, he keeps those donors writing checks. US dismay over regulations which prohibit foreign aid to coup-stricken countries will surely abate when it’s ElBaradei standing beside President Obama in the Rose Garden.

Leading liberal Egyptian politician Mohamed ElBaradei has been named interim prime minister. He was appointed following crisis talks led by President Adly Mahmud Mansour - three days after the army removed Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi amid growing nationwide unrest. The move has in turn triggered mass unrest by supporters of Mr Morsi. Mr ElBaradei - a former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog - is expected to be sworn in later on Saturday. He and other party leaders attended a meeting called by Mr Mansour on Saturday. Mr ElBaradei leads an alliance of liberal and left-wing parties, the National Salvation...

Leading liberal Egyptian politician Mohamed ElBaradei is to be named prime minister, the BBC understands. Mena state news agency says he is meeting interim President Adly Mahmud Mansour, three days after the army removed Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi amid growing nationwide unrest. …

Deep Thoughts by Thomas Friedman But don’t worry, the term “admits” is a bit strong. It’s more like the weatherman who predicted there wouldn’t be a flood for a month straight clinging to an antenna on the roof of his house and trying to find reasons why he was right all along even while the sharks are circling his chimney. The standard fallback position for Tahrir’s international cheerleaders is to argue that we were expecting positive results too quickly. The term “Arab Spring” has to be retired. There is nothing springlike going on,” Friedman says. “It’s best we now speak...

As the civil war in Syria enters its third year, there is much discussion of the regimeÂ’s chemical weapons and whether SyriaÂ’s Bashar al-Assad will unleash them against Syrian rebels, or whether a power vacuum after AssadÂ’s fall might make those horrific tools available to the highest bidder. The conversation centers on SyriaÂ’s chemical weaponry, not on something vastly more serious: its nuclear weaponry. It well might have. This is the inside story of why it does not. Relations between the United States and Israel had grown rocky after IsraelÂ’s incursion into Lebanon in 2006, for Secretary of State Condoleezza...

Egyptian "President" Mohammed Morsi "is not backing down in the showdown over decrees granting him near-absolute powers," that "clashes between the two camps (Morsi's Islamist supporters and secular opponents) ... left two dead and hundreds injured," and that the country's Muslim Brotherhood-dominated assembly "pushed through the 234-article draft (constitution) in just 21 hours from Thursday into Friday ... (after) Coptic Christians and liberals earlier had walked out." The draft constitution includes several articles "that rights activists, liberals and Christians fear will lead to restrictions on the rights of women and minorities," and omits "bans on slavery or promises to adhere...

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made several decrees Thursday that will shape the country’s constitution and, he says, safeguard its “revolutionary” future. They include a ruling that none of his decisions can be overturned by any authority. Morsi gave the Constituent Assembly a two month deadline to finish drafting a new constitution, ruling that no authority may dissolve it until the country's defining document is completed. He further ruled that no authority may dissolve the Shura Council, the upper house of Egypt's parliament. In a move likely to bring criticism that the Egyptian president is inappropriately expanding his powers, he also...