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The United States and New Zealand ended a near 25-year break in intelligence collaboration last year but kept the news secret... US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ...warned the news "should not be acknowledged in public".

Nearly nine years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the bi-state agency that operates the World Trade Center is looking for a private partner to help manage the 1,776-foot office tower that is being built at Ground Zero -- and one of two companies under consideration may have ties to the Middle East. The bidding process for private partners for the "Freedom Tower" has been whittled down to two companies: Durst Organization and Related Companies, Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. reports. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will soon decide which partner will manage and...

The Hamas de facto government in Gaza seeks direct ties with the United States government. According to the Arab newspaper A-Sharq Al-Awsat, Hamas conveyed the message to a delegation of US political activists and members of academe, and asked them to relay it to President Barack Obama's administration. Hamas's message included a request that the US drop its opposition to the idea of a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. The US sees Hamas as a terrorist group while accepting its rival Fatah as a legitimate political movement.

WASHINGTON — A top Obama administration official who's helping lead a campaign for energy conservation has a major financial interest in two companies that are poised to benefit from the government's spending. Cathy Zoi, the assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy, owns between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of stock in Landis+Gyr, a Swiss-based manufacturer of special electric meters that are used to create an efficient "smart" grid of electricity use.

KABUL -- The United States is monitoring reconciliation talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government but will not participate unless the insurgents renounce al-Qaida, a top U.S. diplomat said Wednesday. The comments by Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, came the same day that a Maldives government spokesman said delegations representing the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks late last month in the island nation. Spokesman Mohamed Zuhair said the delegations held three days of face-to-face talks to forge a peaceful solution to the eight-year-old Afghan conflict. The talks did not...

Following the courageous expose by two young investigative journalists released on the pages of this very blog, there were widespread calls for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the criminal enterprise that is ACORN. One would think there would be swift, decisive action from the administration that promised to be the most transparent in history. Despite the urging of some in congress and action on the regional level, and an internal investigation into funding, terrorist sympathizer U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder refuses to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee a criminal investigation of ACORN. There’s no evidence that any...

President Obama's nominee at the Department of Homeland Security overseeing bioterrorism defense has served as a key adviser for a lobbying group funded by the pharmaceutical industry that has asked the government to spend more money for anthrax vaccines and biodefense research. But Dr. Tara O'Toole, whose confirmation as undersecretary of science and technology is pending, never reported her involvement with the lobbying group called the Alliance for Biosecurity in a recent government ethics filing. The alliance has spent more than $500,000 lobbying Congress and federal agencies -- including Homeland Security -- since 2005, congressional records show.

7/29/2009 - BAGHDAD (AFNS) -- Forty-five Airmen volunteered to visit and distribute donated items to local families here July 24 as part of the Sather Air Base Good Neighbor Program. This program, which is sponsored by the Sather AB Rising Six, is made up of volunteers who take a trip once a month to distribute care packages to Iraqi families near Sather AB. The packages include items the Iraqi families may have a hard time getting otherwise, such as personal hygiene items, dry food, toys for children and snacks. According to Senior Airman Ashley Bruce from the 447th Expeditionary Logistics...

4/16/2009 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFNS) -- A Royal Australian Air Force pilot assigned to the 90th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron has had the opportunity to fly the Air Force's premier fighter, the F-22 Raptor, as part of a foreign pilot exchange program. Squadron Leader Matthew Harper is an F-22 instructor pilot and the 90th EFS flight commander in charge of scheduling and training. Squadron Leader Harper began his three-year assignment here in the spring of 2008. The pilot exchange program has been an important part of the military relationship between the U.S. and Australia for many years, according...

In President Obama's first 11 days on the job, he wore only red and blue ties, observed Daily News reporter Joe Dziemianowicz. "Obama represents something different in politics, but he dresses the same as everyone else," said Esquire senior fashion editor Wendell Brown. "Washington, D.C., is a strange place when it comes to style. All the emphasis is on fitting in..." The ties to red and blue go way back. Neckties are said to be descended from the cravat and used throughout most of history, at least the portion during which humans have been fully clothed. Blue was once associated...

Rep. Maxine Waters, the Democratic congresswoman who has represented a swath of South Los Angeles and surrounding communities .. is one of Southern California's toughest and most influential lawmakers. ... But she also has shown a disturbing inability to adequately distinguish her family's interests from those of the public. Nowadays, Waters is not only an important voice in the Congressional Black Caucus but a ranking member of the Judiciary and Financial Services committees. This week, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported that Waters used her access as a senior member of the latter committee to arrange...

Six members of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team for government operations worked in the Clinton administration, and one of them runs a consulting firm that has listed Freddie Mac as a client. The group will review the nuts and bolts of federal agencies, from managing government property to hiring government workers to handling national archives and official records. Linh Nguyen, who’ll oversee the office of personnel management review for the Government Operations Transition Team, founded Morningside Consulting in 2006. His company has since done work for Freddie Mac, as well as Wells Fargo, American Express, Chase Bank, Citibank and a...

As the message of change resonated through the US, the big question for India is whether president-elect Barack Obama will be as good for India as outgoing president George Bush, who has put Indo-US ties on a new trajectory. Analysts and officials largely believe there might be some adjustments but that there will be an overall continuity in the relationship. ``Much of this relationship is based on strategic necessities and not on ideological reasons. As long as these strategic necessities remain, there will be continuity,’’ said Ajai Sahni executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management. But a look at...

This video looks at Obama relation with Islam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuzIP1gKyA4 I am sure this will not effect the liberal base. I don't know if it could influence independants. I do think it will assure our base though.

Students Wearing Ties Risk Not Graduating August 04, 2008 Adnkronos International ­ AKI Tehran -- Thirty-two students who showed up to their graduation ceremony with a tie run the risk of not graduating at all. For some in Iran, the tie is considered an extreme form of western cultural contamination. Thus in many cases, wearing a tie is thought to be a form of silent resistance against the forced Islamisation of society. The students, all medicine students at the University of Shirazi, were approached by university security staff as they entered the room where they would receive their diploma and...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The top elected official in northwest Pakistan said Thursday the country should rethink its relationship with America after a U.S. airstrike that reportedly killed 11 Pakistani soldiers. The U.S. and Pakistan remained at odds in their versions of a Tuesday night clash on the Afghan border that led to American planes dropping bombs on insurgents who had staged an attack inside Afghanistan. President Bush's national security adviser said it was not clear exactly what happened and American officials "have not been able to corroborate" Pakistani troops died. The U.S. "would be very saddened" if that were true,...

TEHRAN (AFP) — A top Iranian customs official has called for imports of ties to be banned because they are "against Iranian culture," the Fars news agency reported on Thursday, amid a crackdown on unIslamic dress. "Imports of some apparel are not banned but serious action should be taken to stop the import of ties which contradict the nature of Iranian culture," state customs bureau deputy head Asghar Hamidi was quoted as saying. "We need to change the country's import regulations to this end," said Hamidi, who is also head of a state plan for the "development of culture, chastity...

Yes, he had them. For instance, how about their support for The Army of Muhammad, a known al-Qaeda subsidiary operating in Bahrain? On pages 34-35 of the report, we find communications between their Bahrain agent and IIS headquarters confirming Army of Mohammad’s loyalty to Osama bin Laden. What is the response from Baghdad? The agent reports (Extract 25) that The Army of Muhammad is working with Osama bin Laden. … A later memorandum from the same collection to the Director of the IIS reports that the Army of Muhammad is endeavoring to receive assistance [from Iraq] to implement its objectives,...

A new study commissioned by the Pentagon has reviewed over 600,000 documents captured in the invasion of Iraq, and the analysis shows no evidence of operational ties between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda. It did find operational ties and more between Saddam and other terrorist groups, however, which will likely be lost in an avalanche of I-told-you-sos: An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein’s regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network.The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this...

Tie ban for doctors to stop spread of MRSA By Alex Berry Last Updated: 2:35am GMT 18/12/2006 Doctors have been ordered to ditch their ties over fears they are spreading the deadly hospital superbug MRSA. An NHS trust has also told all its staff involved in direct patient care not to wear jewellery, wrist watches, scarves or any "superfluous clothing". Even consultants have been warned that being smartly-dressed when giving patients bad news could present an infection risk. The move, by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, follows a report by the British Medical Association calling for doctors to...