Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Germany is planning to set up a new authority to combine its various eavesdropping operations in a purpose-built headquarters near Cologne.
Chancellor Merkel arrived Sunday in Mexico on an official visit due to include talks with Mexican President Calderon. Merkel, who is traveling with a delegation of German lawmakers and business executives, was expected to be feted at the Los Pinos presidential palace with a state dinner.
Germany is Mexico's 4th largest trade partner after the US, China and Japan. Mexico is Merkel's last stop in her tour of Latin America, which included visits to Brazil, Peru and Colombia.
The new US Embassy in Berlin will next week open its doors on the same site the mission occupied before WW2. The formal inauguration will take place on July 4, and will be attended by former President Bush and Chancellor Merkel.
The Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Chairman on Sunday called on Germany to expel terrorist organizations that are using the country as a base.
Since 1979, Iran has been making serious efforts to fight terrorism and "expects the German government to prevent terrorist groups from establishing a presence in the country," he told German MP Peter Ramsauer, who is the leader of the Christian Social Union party in the Bundestag.
The Iranian lawmaker said stronger ties between the 2 parliaments would help strengthen the comprehensive relations between Tehran and Berlin.
The UK foreign office has denied reports in a German newspaper that foreign minister David Miliband is looking to become the EU's next foreign policy chief. Die Welt am Sonntag reported "high-ranking EU diplomats" as saying that Miliband had the support of France and other countries to become the high representative for foreign and security policy next year.
Russian bullying and Georgian insensitivity are combining to heat the frozen conflict over the disputed Black Sea territory of Abkhazia.
Three European nations threatened to oppose credit guarantees for the construction of the Ilisu dam in Turkey if Ankara disregards environmental and social commitments linked to the project. Economy ministers for Germany, Austria and Switzerland issued the threat over the massive project on the Tigris river.
Stuart Littlewood considers the increasing use of assassination by the US and Israel, and reports that Israeli murder squads have been authorized to enter "friendly" countries, including Britain, and kill enemies of the racist Jews-only state of Israel.
Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews around the world demonstrated in protest of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Zionist State. Demonstrations were held in London, Montreal, Jerusalem, New York City, and Beis Shemesh calling for the peaceful dismantlement of the so-called "State of Israel". The so-called "Israeli Independence Day" has been a day of mourning for traditional Jews since the creation of the Zionist State in 1948.
Israel got glowing praise from President Bush. The Arab world is getting renewed promises, but also a bit of a lecture. Bush presented Middle Eastern leaders with a long to-do list on Sunday: bring about freer economic markets, enact political reforms that move toward democratic governments, allow greater participation in society for women and young people, and "reject spoilers such as the regimes in Iran and Syria."
(And: Text of prepared speech)
(Op-ed: Bush with the pharaohs)
(Op-ed: Israel's "American problem")
The Palestinian Authority last week held an official meeting in Jerusalem to discuss dealing with expected Palestinian sovereignty over key sections of the city. The Israeli government was fully aware of the PA meeting, according to diplomatic sources in Jerusalem.
Even as Defense Ministry officials said Sunday that Israel was likely to accept the Gaza Strip cease-fire deal brokered by Egypt, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in a meeting with a high-level US congressional delegation, did not mention the cease-fire and talked instead about a possible large-scale military incursion.
The White House had given the green light to Israel to attack Lebanon's Hezbollah on May 11th, Israeli intelligence sources have revealed. They said that, on May 10, the US government urged the Israeli army to launch a fierce military strike on Southern and Western Beirut as well as other Lebanese regions.
Osama bin Laden released a new message on Sunday denouncing Arab leaders for sacrificing the Palestinians and saying the head of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah did not really have the strength to take on Israel. In his 2nd audio message in 3 days focusing on the Palestinians, he said the only way to liberate Palestine is to fight the Arab regimes that are protecting Israel.
He said Muslims should ignore the Islamic prohibition against raising arms against fellow Muslims, claiming it was legitimate to rise up against leaders who are not governing according to Islamic law. Those leaders, he said, came to power "either by a military coup or with backing from foreign forces."
In Sichuan, an estimated 10 million people have been affected over a huge area. At least 3 million homes have been destroyed and another 12 million damaged.
IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Major-General Dan Harel met this past weekend with the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, to discuss the Iranian threat. According to sources, new information regarding Iran's nuclear efforts cancel out the conclusions reached by the American National Intelligence Estimate, published in December.
President Bush and Iranian leaders have traded accusations against each other as tensions between the 2 nations appeared to rise on Sunday.
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman says the US should strive to gain a better understanding of the current situation in the world.
"The US administration cannot change nations and their values. It is better for it to leave behind the culture of the Middle Ages. The policies and thoughts promoted by Bush and his allies, anchored in the medieval culture as they are, have damaged security and stability in our region and resulted in numerous crises and conflicts."
There are very significant foreign-policy implications in that passage. Indeed, having made the comparison between Iran and Nazi Germany in 1939 and suggesting that those who favor talking with Tehran are practicing "appeasement," Bush has really made it much more difficult for engagement to take place for the balance of his administration.
The Europeans are talking to Tehran. How do they react to this kind of rhetoric?
Bush not only affirms the Netanyahu's analogy, but goes him one better by suggesting we're actually in 1939. Does this mean someone in the White House wants Netanyahu to become the next prime minister?
(Cartoon: Never talk to enemies)
Senator Joe Biden says the US president must make up his mind either to negotiate with Iran or wage war on the country. "You either talk, or you go to war."
"I remember John McCain saying 'Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.' I thought that was funny, but I mean a lot of people didn't."
The unseemly spectacle of an American president denouncing a Democratic presidential candidate in a foreign venue, in front of the parliament of a nation whose interests are inextricably intertwined with the issue at hand, has no precedent in our history.
In our Bizarro World universe, however, where all moral and political values have been stood on their heads, this is what passes for "patriotic" and "pro-American" activism on the part of our chief executive – upholding the interests of a foreign nation over and above your own.
Federal sources close to this case have told me CIA Agent Roland Carnaby had proof a "suitcase nuke" had arrived inside the US from Israel on Tuesday (April 29). He was chasing the device and the Israelis who had it. As Houston law enforcement was called-in, for some unknown reason cops allegedly began chasing the CIA Agent instead of the Israelis and ultimately shot the CIA Agent dead!
Federal sources have told me that they fear the detonation of a small nuclear device in or around Houston/Galveston. They say the old refineries there need to be modernized and expanded, but environmental regulations require companies clean up existing ground pollution before they will allow those refineries to be modernized.
The costs of such environmental clean-up would make new refineries too costly. However, a "terrorist attack" in that region would destroy the refineries and simultaneously shift all the clean up costs to ... the taxpayer!
[WAR: A nuke attack on the refineries would also be the false-flag "terrorist" attack to justify a war with Iran.]
Will the Jews sink Obama? That's the question asked over on Salon. The theory isn't hard to grasp. Here it is:
The GOP is already pushing, and pushing hard, the idea that Obama has a problem with the Jewish vote, because of his proposals to sit down to negotiate with Iranian leaders who have threatened Israel, because of his former pastor's ties to Louis Farrakhan and (though most Republicans don't bring this up) because of false fears that Obama is secretly Muslim.
In theory conservatives adore the Constitution and seek to protect it with appeals to "original intent." In practice conservatives hate the Constitution as the protector of homosexuals and abortionists. Conservatives regard civil liberties as coddling devices for criminals and terrorists. They see the 1st Amendment as a foolish protection for sedition.
Conservatives have confused loyalty to country, which is loyalty to the Constitution, with loyalty to the Bush Regime. It is purely a partisan loyalty based in emotion--"you are with us or against us." The conservative movement has produced a cadre of brownshirts that might yet succeed in destroying the American Constitution
The political career of Gordon Brown may be brought to an abrupt halt this week, less than a year after he became prime minister.
Sorcerer's apprentices are doomed to repeat the same mistakes on and on. In the coming weeks we will experience a "remake" of the same scenario, i.e. a serious aggravation of the January-March 2008 financial crisis at the beginning of summer 2008.
The rising price of oil isn't just swelling Americans' energy bills — it's also holding back their stock portfolios. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department's upbeat report on housing starts also met with some doubt among investors, particularly because the huge rise was due mostly to apartment construction.
Back in August, during the panic over mortgages, Alan Greenspan offered reassurance to an anxious public. But in the background, one could hear the groans and feel the tremors as larger political and economic tectonic plates collided.
Nine months later, Greenspan's soothing analogies no longer wash. The US economy faces unprecedented debt levels, soaring commodity prices and sliding home prices, to say nothing of a weak dollar. Despite the recent stabilization of the economy, some economists fear that the world will soon face the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s.
German financial watchdog Bafin warned on Thursday that the global crisis or "tsunami" that crashed over the country's banks could worsen, dragging down the wider economy.
"We were on the edge of the precipice," Bafin's president told journalists, comparing the global credit crunch with a tsunami wave. But the dark clouds, said Bafin, have not yet cleared. "There is the danger that the financial crisis gets worse still and hits the real economy stronger than expected."
The credit crunch is continuing and it is not evident that the worst is over, the head of the European Central Bank has told the BBC. He said we were seeing "an ongoing, very significant market correction."
He warned that if central banks were tempted to cut interest rates now, more serious problems could follow.
It's not a supply crisis that explains the sharp spike in oil prices. It's unregulated commodities markets and greed.
The US Congress has just passed a new Farm Bill that continues the system of high subsidies even when food prices and farm profits are at record highs. It will incense the rest of the world.
World food crisis
Food protests and riots have swept more than 20 countries in the past few months. The most commonly stated reasons include rising fuel costs, global warming, deterioration of soils, and increased demand in China and India. So is it all just a case of hard luck and poor planning? There is just too much of a pattern, and too many elements all pointing in the same direction.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
Tension between Colombia and Venezuela increased Sunday after Colombia's defense minister rejected an accusation by the Venezuelan government that 60 Colombian troops had illegally entered a border region of Venezuela known to be a redoubt for Colombian guerrilla groups.
Exclusive! The alleged polygamous cult leader, Yisrayl Hawkins, from the House of Yahweh breaks his silence to Nancy Grace and takes your calls! Watch This Tuesday (May 20) at 8:00pm EST.
(Wiki: House of Yahweh)
(And: Yisrayl Hawkins website)
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