Free Republic

Germany's Schroeder slams U.S. missile shield plans Sun Mar 11, 2007 4:28PM GMT DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. plans to build a high-tech missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are dangerous and absurd, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Sunday. "The missile defence system planned by the United States and which is to be installed in eastern Europe is politically extremely dangerous," Schroeder said in a speech in Dresden. "It is viewed, rightly, in Russia, and not only there, as an attempt to establish an absurd encirclement policy, a policy which is everything but in the interest...

Judge tosses suit against Jerry Brown Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Saturday, February 10, 2007 (02-10) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- A Superior Court judge tossed out a lawsuit Friday claiming Jerry Brown was not qualified to serve as state attorney general because he had not practiced law for all of the five years prior to his election in November. Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian rejected the lawsuit, saying that while Brown had chosen to let his membership in the State Bar of California be "inactive" from 1997 through April 2003, he was still eligible to practice law and had been...

THE war in Iraq is unlikely to be resolved by a US Administration committed to a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint, according to Gerhard Schröder, the former German Chancellor, whose newly published memoirs stoke his four-year feud with President Bush.Herr Schröder won a re-election campaign in 2002 by setting out German opposition to the invasion of Iraq. As a result, relations with Washington deteriorated and the two leaders barely spoke for three years. In extracts from his memoirs to be published in Der Spiegel magazine, Herr Schröder explains what went wrong and why it will be difficult for the President to make...

BERLIN - Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose second term was marked by vehement opposition to the war in Iraq, described in an advance copy of his memoirs how he was suspicious of President Bush's constant references to his Christian faith. In an excerpt of his book, "Decisions: My Life in Politics" published in the German weekly Der Spiegel Saturday, Schroeder discusses the key political choices that marked his seven-year term in office, including the decision to call early elections and his split with Bush over the Iraq war. "I am anything but anti-American," Schroeder told Spiegel in an interview to accompany...

Germans want probe of 'Schrodergate' Big News Network.com Wednesday 26th April, 2006 (UPI) German lawmakers want an investigation of former chancellor Gerhard Schroder's possible favors for a Russian firm, which later hired him as a top executive. The Free Democrat Party has been most vocal in calling for a probe into whether the former head of the once-ruling Social Democrat Party used his position as head of state to help the Kremlin-controlled OAO Gazprom natural gas conglomerate get financing to build a Baltic Sea pipeline. The pipeline would ship Russian gas to Europe by skipping Poland and the Baltic states....

Berlin confirms report of Gazprom credit under Schroeder govt The German economy ministry has confirmed that the previous government of Gerhard Schroeder had guaranteed a credit of one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) for the Russian group Gazprom's Baltic pipeline project. An inter-ministerial commission rushed through a "decision in principle" on October 24 last year while waiting for a new coalition to be formed by now Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for the economy minister said, confirming reports published Saturday in the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). The report comes after Schroeder was voted in Thursday as head of the supervisory board...

Defiant Schroeder starts gas job Thursday, March 30, 2006; Posted: 8:07 a.m. EST (13:07 GMT) MOSCOW, Germany (Reuters) -- German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder denied cashing in on his connections as he started a lucrative job on Thursday as head of a Russian-led gas pipeline project. Schroeder was elected to the 250,000 euros a year ($300,000) post of chairman of the shareholders' committee of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) company at the panel's first meeting in Moscow. Critics say the Social Democrat acted with unseemly haste in accepting the job overseeing the $5 billion pipeline project, whose construction was sealed...

...Next week a parliamentary committee is expected to meet in secret session to investigate a report... that German secret agents in Baghdad provided the United States military with Saddam Hussein's plan for the defense of Baghdad.... Almost nobody here, from left to right, is saying what many Americans would say about Germany's providing intelligence help to the United States, namely, that it would be a very good thing if it proved to be true. Providing noncombat help in war to an ally, especially one as close as Germany has been to the United States, would seem to be normal behavior....

BERLIN - Few expected Angela Merkel to become so popular so fast when she became Germany's first female leader, taking over a country sunk in economic gloom after she barely won an election she was expected to sweep. But as Merkel marks her 100th day as chancellor Wednesday, signs of economic improvement are lifting the mood and sending her poll ratings soaring. The conservative leader has reassured Germans with promises of "small steps" to recovery — a break with talk of painful and far-reaching reforms that turned off voters during the election campaign. That typifies Merkel's pragmatic approach to her...

German spies handed Saddam Hussein's war plans to the Americans while their government was denouncing the planned attack, it was claimed yesterday. The documents were transferred as the coalition completed its invasion plans in February 2003. A month later, American and British forces entered Iraq. The claims, in yesterday's New York Times, were swiftly denied by German officials. The paper said that a classified American military document referred to Saddam and his aides meeting in late 2002 to radically amend Iraq's war plans. They had wanted an invading army slowed and deflected by Iraq's military en route to Baghdad. But...

For the first time on Monday, a relative of a victim of the September 11, 2001 attacks that were mostly carried out by Saudi nationals will speak in public in the kingdom. Sonia Tita Puopolo, is the daughter of Sonia Morales Puopolo, who was a passenger on American Airlines flight 11 that crashed into one of the towers of New York's World Trade Center.She is to speak during a session titled "Terrorism - The Human Toll" at the Jeddah Economic Forum starting in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah in the west of the ultra conservative kingdom on Saturday....

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a fierce critic of the Bush administration, said Saturday that he's pulling for U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the White House. "I'd be very pleased if Hillary Clinton would become the next American president," Schroeder said to applause from a largely Saudi audience at the Jeddah Economic Forum, which opened here Saturday. "But don't quote me too loud. I hope I'm not harming her by saying that." Schroeder made the statement during a discussion of global women leaders at a gender-segregated theater where a plastic barrier separated women from men.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a fierce critic of the Bush administration, said Saturday that he's pulling for U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the White House. "I'd be very pleased if Hillary Clinton would become the next American president," Schroeder said to applause from a largely Saudi audience at the Jeddah Economic Forum, which opened here Saturday. "But don't quote me too loud. I hope I'm not harming her by saying that." Schroeder made the statement during a discussion of global women leaders at a gender-segregated theater where a plastic barrier separated women...

The European Union’s accounting branch has never approved a single budget: it just can’t find the paperwork. Jacques Chirac was bought off by Saddam Hussein’s Oil-for-Food scam, through his bagman Charles Pascal. High level corruption is pretty much the norm in major European countries. And now we see three simply amazing coincidences, one after the other: September, 2005 “Ten days ahead of Germany’s parliamentary elections, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin attended on September 8 in Berlin the signing of a framework agreement to construct a gas pipeline from Russia directly to Germany along the Baltic seabed. The...

BERLIN - New German Chancellor Angela Merkel's flurry of trips underlines her break with predecessor Gerhard Schroeder's backslapping, personalized diplomacy, showing a more balanced approach that doesn't softpedal sore points. Merkel returned to Berlin from Moscow to good reviews Tuesday in the German and European press. One key element many noted was her effort to restore balance in the relationship with Russia and the United States. That meant not downplaying human rights with Moscow and getting ties back on track with Washington without ignoring European dismay over the treatment of terror suspects. Merkel's meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin on...

Chancellor Angela Merkel's first visit to Moscow as German leader has heralded a cooler, more businesslike approach to Russia compared with the unquestioning friendship displayed by her predecessor Gerhard Schröder. Gone are the days of public cuddling and sauna visits that have marked relations between Russian and German leaders since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, signalled a decidedly no-nonsense approach during her inaugural visit to Moscow on Monday that reflected concern in Berlin about an excessive dependence on Russian gas and Russian human rights abuses. In a break with tradition that is unlikely to...

Chancellor Angela Merkel's first visit to Moscow as German leader has heralded a cooler, more businesslike approach to Russia compared with the unquestioning friendship displayed by her predecessor Gerhard Schröder. Gone are the days of public cuddling and sauna visits that have marked relations between Russian and German leaders since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, signalled a decidedly no-nonsense approach during her inaugural visit to Moscow on Monday that reflected concern in Berlin about an excessive dependence on Russian gas and Russian human rights abuses. In a break with tradition that is unlikely to...

by Mark Finkelstein January 14, 2006 - 07:55 You know the Ted, Chuck & Joe Show flopped when even Chris Matthews accuses the Dems of "buffoonery" in the Alito hearings. Yet that is exactly what Matthews did in his appearance on this morning's Today show: "I don't think any points were scored by the Democrats, there was a lot of buffooney by Democratic senators. There was no coherent message, no coherent critique of the guy." For whatever reason, Matthews was on his most 'fair & balanced' behavior. For example, in discussing Pres. Bush's joint appearance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will couple criticism of the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay with a vow to do more to help stabilize Iraq when she meets President George W. Bush on Friday, a senior German diplomat said. Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler, in an interview with the German daily Passauer Neue Presse published on Thursday, said however that German aid to Iraq would remain limited to the training of security personnel and humanitarian relief. "Mrs Merkel will certainly speak in critical terms about Guantanamo when she is in Washington. She has signaled that herself," Erler said....

Schröder feels heat over Gazprom By Bronwen Maddox GERHARD SCHRÖDER has got off lightly so far for a breathtakingly disreputable choice of employer. Perhaps not for much longer, though, given the heat rising in Poland, the US and Germany’s own media. The former German Chancellor surely hoped that in taking up the post of chairman of an arm of Gazprom he could make the most of his friendship with Russia’s President Putin and indulge his warm pursuit of a German-Russian alliance, all in a low-key way. He won’t escape the spotlight now, for the worst of reasons. Less than a...