Free Republic

Wasn't Barack Obama supposed to be the guy who was loved all across the world. During the campaign didn't they do public opinion polls that showed how the Obamessiah was the choice over McCain in all of our allied countries as well as our enemies? Those days are gone. Remember how he he upset the entire country of Great Britain by dissing their Prime Minister; no state dinner, no press conference and to top it all off President Obama gave the Prime Minister a crappy take-home gift, old DVDs that were in a format that couldn't be played in a...

The US President’s criticism of the “mistake” added to a growing backlash against the Scottish decision to free the biggest mass murderer in British legal history on compassionate grounds. Hours after the Scottish National Party administration in Edinburgh announced its decision to free him, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the only man convicted of the 1988 atrocity, flew home to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli.

Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, convicted of murdering 270 people by blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, two decades ago was returned to his native Libya on Thursday. Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi covers his face as he boards a plane. "Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion available," MacAskill said. He spoke to CNN's Wolf Blitzer about the case. Here is a transcript of that interview. Blitzer: And joining us now from Scotland, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. Mr. MacAskill, did Al Megrahi kill 270 people? MacAskill: Yes. He was convicted by a...

The United States is warning Libya not to make a hero out of the terminally-ill Libyan, convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, who was allowed to return home Thursday by Scottish authorities. The Obama administration says the decision to release Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was a profound mistake. The United States is expressing deep disappointment and regret over the Scottish decision to release the Lockerbie bombing figure, and it has warned Libya not to make a hero of the convicted terrorist or face unspecified consequences in bilateral relations. The decision by Scottish authorities to release Megrahi, said to be near...

It is not just the reputation of Scottish justice that will suffer in America as a consequence of the release “on compassionate grounds” of Abdelbasat Ali Mohmen Al Megrahi. The credibility of Barack Obama’s influence on the world is going to take at least as hard a knock. In the end, all the protests and all the diplomatic pressure from the White House counted for nothing. Scotland’s determination to return Megrahi to the bosom of his family and his homeland was not going to be blocked. The rehabilitation of America’s standing in the world was going to be one of...

For anyone wondering what to do with a couple of 20 euro notes stuffed in their sock drawer and no holiday in sight on the Continent, there may be a simple answer - spend them in the UK. From the south coast of England to a Birmingham nightclub and a major high street retailer to Edinburgh's Royal Mile, substantial numbers are saying yes to the euro. Quite where this trend began is in dispute. Dunster, a medieval village in Exmoor, lays claim to being the first place in Britain to accept euros on a par with the pound - not...

There are few things more annoying than a millionaire socialist -- hearing someone condemn capitalism after they’ve already banked their million. The only thing worse is a billionaire socialist. Folks like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez make this list. And now add to it Britain’s bonnie Prince Charles. Earlier this month the prince gave a lecture in which he blamed capitalism and consumerism for bringing the world to the brink of collapse and declared that the “age of convenience is over.” He warned that the world has just 96 months to avert "irretrievable climate and ecosystem collapse, and all that...

After a week of press speculation on the subject, Hillary Clinton has finally weighed in to confirm that the special envoy rumors are true — well, sort of, anyway. But what exactly did Foggy Bottom’s heaviest hitter say about Northern Ireland’s future place in the Washington sun? By pledging her continued peace process dedication, did she mean it will be business as usual for the prized Belfast-to-Washington pipeline of the last 15 years? Or, was there a subtext in her words that signaled that top level US involvement is gradually winding down? In an interview, Clinton left no doubt that...

Once upon a time, British and American politics seemed to operate in tandem. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan came to office, both supposedly little experienced and out of the mainstream, at about the same time. Tony Blair shaped his New Labor politics with the New Democrat approach of Bill Clinton very much in mind. But today, British and American politics are moving in very different directions. One reason is that changes of government, from one party to another, have become very infrequent in Britain. The only one the last 30 years, since Thatcher's victory in 1979, was Blair's in 1997....

LONDON // Britain should stop trying to be “a mini-United States” and give up maintaining armed forces capable of policing world trouble spots, a report from an influential think tank said yesterday. After a two-year review, the high-powered panel of experts said the UK simply could not afford its international role and recommended slashing £24 billion (Dh146bn) from proposed defence spending.

Four of the September 11 hijackers would have got through America's travel screening procedures introduced since the attacks, the US Secretary of Homelands Security has said. In an interview in London, Janet Napolitano said screening procedures have been improved since the attacks eight years ago, adding: "All but four of the attackers would have been picked up." But she said: "You can't thermoseal entry to the US. We have to be ever vigilant." The US has seen Britain as a potential jumping-off for terrorists attacking the US but Ms Napolitano emphasised the country was a "close ally" and had much...

Obama junks ‘global war on terror’ label By Edward Luce and Daniel Dombey in Washington Published: June 30 2009 01:04 | Last updated: June 30 2009 01:04 The Obama administration has junked the term “global war on terror” because it does not describe properly the nature of the terrorist threat to the US, according to Janet Napolitano, secretary for homeland security. “One of the reasons the nomenclature is not used is that ‘war’ carries with it a relationship to nation states in conflict with each other and of course terrorism is not necessarily derived from the nation state relationship,” she...

The British Government responded with ill-disguised fury tonight to the news that four Chinese Uighurs freed from Guantanamo Bay had been flown for resettlement on the Atlantic tourist paradise of Bermuda. The four arrived on Bermuda in the early hours, celebrating the end of seven years of detention after learning that they were to be accepted as guest workers. But it appears that the Government of Bermuda failed to consult with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the decision to take in the Uighurs – whose return is demanded by Beijing – and it could now be forced to send...

Diplomacy:Should the U.S. scrap its special relationship with the U.K. to fulfill an ill-considered campaign vow? That's the trade-off the Obama administration made by secretly foisting terrorists onto Bermuda. It's wrong.The British Foreign Office had a right to be angry at the U.S. transfer of four Uighur terrorists from Guantanamo detention to the U.K. colony of Bermuda without its knowledge. After all, Britain is a sovereign state and, like any nation, has a right to know who's on its territory. Instead, it got treated like some banana republic. It didn't learn of the move until after the four Gitmo detainees...

Mrs Brown pays hundreds of pounds of her own money to rent the items - including a £9,000 top worn at last week's G20 summit events with other leaders' spouses. Mrs Brown's approach is in stark contrast to that adopted by her predecessor, Cherie Blair, who was criticised for receiving free clothes or discounts worth thousands of pounds from top designers. Carole Caplin, Mrs Blair's lifestyle guru, is said to have negotiated many of the discounts amid concern from senior civil servants at the time. For recent banquets with foreign leaders and the Lord Mayor, Mrs Brown has rented dresses...

Isn't it time for him to go home yet? It is good, in theory, that the new President of the United States is taking so much time to tour Europe. He arrived in London last Tuesday, has been to Strasbourg, Prague yesterday and now he's off to Turkey. It shows, I suppose, that he cares about the outside world and that is 'A Good Thing'. But his long stay means that we are hearing rather a lot from him, way too much in fact.

Isn't it time for him to go home yet? It is good, in theory, that the new President of the United States is taking so much time to tour Europe. But his long stay means that we are hearing rather a lot from him, way too much in fact. His long speeches are under-delivered...leaving a faintly empty sensation in this listener...Yet, we are told that he is a great orator...am I alone in finding him increasingly to be something of a bore? ...most of the serious answers that I listened to were interminable, windy and not very impressive. At points...

I never imagined I’d say it, but I’m beginning to identify with Barack Obama. I’m certainly not referring to his politics or his narcissism, but it seems that both of us really suck when it comes to gift giving. First, he gave Prime Minister Gordon Brown some DVDs that were incompatible with English electronics, and then he gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod that contained his speeches. Well, I hate to admit it, but I can empathize. Shopping for a prime minister has got to be hard enough, but trying to shop for a woman who has her own country would...

While the world and the American mainstream media were swooning over the Obamas in Europe, the independence and sovereignty of the U.S. suffered. The media's flattering pictures and fulsome words of Obama praise could not mask the price Obama paid for the harmony portrayed ("my new comrade" enthused Russian "President" Medvedev) and the "successes" counted. First, there's the war without end going into its eighth year in Afghanistan. At the NATO meeting, Obama failed to get European troop commitments. He desperately sought to deflect criticism that the U.S. was going it alone in escalating that war. While there are 32,000...

During the G20 Summit in London, US President Barack Obama bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The mainstream TV and print media in the US have not produced any stories of this event. Coverage of this story has been limited to blog sites and non-US news outlets.