Free Republic

Rules of game changing Israelis officials can’t keep up with dramatic changes in America’s Mideastern policy Shimon Shiffer Published: 05.03.09, 12:30 / Israel Opinion The reports about the rapprochement between the Obama administration and Syria left Israeli policy makers stunned. “What’s going on here?” asked a senior figure in Jerusalem last night. “The Syrians are not providing reasons that could justify the rush of administration emissaries to visit Damascus. The Syrian regime continues its involvement in Iraq and enables terrorists to cross the border and carry out attacks against the US Army. The Syrians bribe anything that moves in Lebanon...

BELGRADE -- An international expert on territories under international administration says Kosovo Albanians' UDI is tantamount to illegal secession. “The local Albanians do not have the right to self-determination and Kosovo is not an independent state,” Professor Ralph Wilde said in a statement for Belgrade daily Večernje Novosti published on Tuesday. Wilde is a consultant for a number of governments and international organizations, a member of the Law Faculty of University College London, the University of London, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. “Under international law, a new state can be formed out of a part of...

Richard Phillips escapes unharmed, assisted by U.S. Navy SEALS. By Stephanie S. Garlow - Special to GlobalPost Published: April 10, 2009 20:32 ET Updated: April 12, 2009 15:23 ET-A +ABUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — The Massachusetts Maritime Academy instilled a sense of leadership in Richard Phillips — it also taught him how to navigate by the stars and how to avoid crashing into ships. They were valuable lessons that some 30 years since he graduated from here earned him the rank of captain in command of his own ship. But there are some things you can’t learn in school —...

Over the course of the primary season, Barack Obama has demonstrated an unerring ability to reach out to all Americans, irrespective of ethnic background or social status. He is a black man who was born on the wrong side of the tracks, but his campaign has been refreshingly devoid of the divisive race agenda that characterised the bids of black politicians such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in the 1980s and 1990s. His simple promise to undertake a radical change in the way the country is run has struck a chord with a nation that has become disillusioned with...

Americans tend to think of the presidency as all-powerful, but much of its authority comes from the ability to convince the public to follow, and the same is sometimes true in diplomacy. The time when George W. Bush could perform that trick has long passed. But if Americans are adjusting to the idea of a weak Bush, an even tougher mental leap awaits them once he leaves office: accepting that the U.S. isn't the force abroad it was just a few years ago. The next President's hardest job may be getting the country used to that

During his tenure as President George W. Bush's defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld often likened the administration's foreign policy decisions to those of the Truman administration during the first years of the Cold War. As President George W. Bush makes his way to Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states with a stated agenda of advancing the goal of Palestinian statehood, it is worth examining president Truman's achievements and comparing them with those of President Bush. President Harry S Truman was in some ways an accidental president. Elected vice president in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fourth term in...

The Indispensable Condition of Peace Only when the initiators of force learn that their actions lead to their own destruction, will peace be possible in the Middle East. By Onkar Ghate As Israeli soldiers reenter Gaza and bomb Lebanon, and Israeli citizens seek shelter from Hezbollah's missiles, the world despairingly wonders whether peace between Israel and its neighbors can ever take root. It can--but only if America reverses course. To achieve peace in the Middle East, as in any region, there is a necessary principle that every party must learn: the initiation of force is evil. And the indispensable means...

James Jatras Interview for Serbian Daily "Vecernje Novosti" May 13, 2006 Translated to English from Serbian, by Alex Belgrade From Wednesday, May 3, on the Washington political scene, there is yet another institution - the American Council for Kosovo, a professionally led NGO whose prime mission is to prevent the independence of Kosovo and to take that stance even as a defence of America's own interests. The management of this organization consists of respectable people, former admirals and generals, diplomats and state officials, with little or no ethnic and emotional ties to the Balkans. We are talking to James Jatras,...

When I first heard about the Harvard paper addressing the power of the Jewish Lobby an uneasy chill ran down my spine. After all, this "academic" paper blew the cover off how Jews control the US State department and American Foreign Policy. Maybe we should be telling people the truth about Jews, we not only foreign policy but control everything from the banks to the NCAA basketball finals. Historic figures from Napoleon to Condolleeza Rice are all closet Jews. Read the full scoop in todays Israelinsider http://web.israelinsider.com/views/8182.htm

SENIOR Israeli and Palestinian representatives have held secret talks in America to discuss ways of sidelining Hamas, the Islamic militant group that took power for the first time in the Palestinian territories yesterday after emerging as the surprise victor in elections last month. Senior figures linked to the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government took part in two days of talks in Texas. The meeting was chaired by Edward Djerejian, 65, a former US ambassador to Israel and Syria, who was briefed by the US State Department before it began.News of the contacts between the Israelis and supporters of the...

. Tonight America, Democracy’s Light to the Entire World, appears trapped between the worst of two alternatives: 1) Embracing the Media-Chorus that Nick Bern’s tragic murder reflect America’s growing failure to bring Democracy and Economic Opportunity to the downtrodden citizens of the Middle East 2) Surrendering to the Defeatist Idea that our Military effort in Iraq AND the Global War on Islamo-Fascist Terror is doomed to failure, based on the allegedly catastrophic “Prison Abuse Scandal” America’s challenges tonight, to be sure, are neither trivial or easily solved. Once America’s instant hot anger over the brutal globally-televised murder of Nick Bern...

An Antiwar Activist Known for Being Committed Yet ErraticBy JAMES DAO Published: March 12, 2004 TAKOMA PARK, Md., March 11 — Susan P. Lindauer wore her liberal politics on her sleeve, as well as on her aging Mazda, where bumper stickers proclaimed her unabashed opposition to the Iraq conflict. "Peace in Iraq through change at home," one said. "War is not the answer," another said. To her neighbors — who described her as gentle if somewhat lonely — Ms. Lindauer was typical of this left-leaning enclave on the northern doorstep of Washington, a place fondly known by its residents as...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095652/posts Accused spy for Iraq worked for California congresswoman (Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose)Sac Bee ^ | 3/11/04 | AP- Washington Lockerbie Trial Document: Susan Lindauer Susan Lindauer Revolving Doors   http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095691/posts Saddam Spy Suspect Lindauer: 'I'm an Anti-war Activist'NewsMax ^ | 3/11/04 | Limbacher     http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095762/posts American charged in Iraqi conspiracy [Andy Card's distant cousin]CNN ^ | March 11, 2004     http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095744/posts How Susan Lindauer Was Caught NRO ^ | 11 March 2004 | Byron York"discussed the need for plans and foreign resources to support [resistance] groups operating within Iraq." Lindauer is a former journalist for U.S. News...

Today: March 11, 2004 at 16:15:43 PST Accused Spy Is Cousin of Bush Staffer By MATTHEW DALYASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - The woman charged with working for the Iraqi spy agency is a distant cousin of President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, and has held a variety of jobs in journalism and on Capitol Hill. Susan Lindauer, 41, worked in the press offices of four Democratic members of Congress. She also worked for Fortune magazine, U.S. News & World Report, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Fox News. Her father, John Lindauer, was the Republican nominee for governor in Alaska in...

NEW YORK -- An American citizen was arrested Thursday on charges she acted as an Iraqi spy, prosecutors said. Susan Lindauer, 41, was arrested in her hometown of Takoma Park, Md., and was to appear in court later in the day in Baltimore, authorities in New York said.

Warsaw's Mayor to Cancel Visit WARSAW, Jan. 13 (Reuters) — The mayor of Warsaw said Tuesday that he would cancel a visit to the United States to protest its policy of fingerprinting visitors as part of new antiterror measures. The mayor, Lech Kaczynski, who leads a major right-wing party, was supposed to pay a visit in April to Chicago and New York, both home to large Polish communities. "I will go only when there will be no need for taking pictures and fingerprinting," Mr. Kaczynski told reporters. Poland had hoped that as a reward for its help in the war...

In Massachusetts, high school students will square off against senior citizens. In Denver, ex-U.S. senators will exchange verbal jabs. All over the country, people are sharpening their rhetorical skills as they prepare to join in an ambitious plan to get Americans talking about the nation's role in the world. An unlikely collection of liberal and conservative groups are working together on "The People Speak" -- which is aiming to spur a nationwide, town-by-town debate on foreign policy and the United Nations. The groups have helped organize more than 1,000 debates in 49 states starting Monday and playing out over the...

Neocon 101 Some basic questions answered.A NOTE of CAUTION: I suggest readers see my comments first before reading this.What do neoconservatives believe? "Neocons" believe that the United States should not be ashamed to use its unrivaled power forcefully if necessary to promote its values around the world. Some even speak of the need to cultivate a US empire. Neoconservatives believe modern threats facing the US can no longer be reliably contained and therefore must be prevented, sometimes through preemptive military action. Most neocons believe that the US has allowed dangers to gather by not spending enough on defense and not...

Wednesday, 22 January, 2003, 00:29 GMT US threatens to cut aid to Belgrade Prosper (left) urged Serbs to cooperate By Matthew Price BBC correspondent in Belgrade The authorities in Belgrade have been told that they must hand over three key war crimes suspects by 31 March or risk losing financial aid and other support from the United States. Mladic's arrest could mean an end to further prosecutions The message was delivered to Belgrade during a visit by the US Department of State's Ambassador for War Crimes Issues, Pierre-Richard Prosper. Mr Prosper suggested if the three individuals are handed over there...

North Korea does not keep any treatys it makes with the US. Seeming, the US has tried over and over to reach the Communist government of North Korea so as to help them as their people starve and die due to their adherance to communism. They continue to threaten the world and mostly South Korea in an effort to blackmail the US into giving them, free of charge mind you, all that they want. Now that they don't care to keep to their agreed upon conditions of not making Nuke weapons they fly in the face of the global community...