This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Foreign Policy

  • Terror back on the front burner

    After months of fighting over the President’s domestic agenda, terror comes to the fore again. The Wall Street Journal offers an interview with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, our oldest and dearest state sponsor of terrorism. Gadhafi admits that he “comprehends” our anger over Lockerbie;

    In an hour-long interview, Col. Gadhafi said he hoped to build a new era of relations with U.S. President Barack Obama — whom he called “my son” during the same U.N. address — and said he wanted to place his nation’s decades-long conflict with Washington in the past.

    The Libyan strongman denied his government had purposefully stoked nationalist sentiment surrounding the return home of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet that blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. Mr. al-Megrahi, who has cancer, was released by Scottish authorities last month on humanitarian grounds.

    “My son” – that shows us how much respect he has for our President after Obama’s latest apology to the world. I’m sure the Obama administration will rebuild the respect we’ve lost over the last several months by firing off a cruise missile in the next few months.

    WSJ also reports that Iran has opened another uranium enrichment facility;

    A U.S. intelligence official said the facility is one the U.S. “has known about for years,” though the government learned more recently that it was being used for uranium enrichment.

    The official said the facility is hidden in an underground tunnel complex 30 kilometers north of Qom, Iran’s Holy City. It is built to hold up to 3,000 centrifuges, though it isn’t clear that they’re fully operational yet. The site is located at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base under the management of the Atomic Energy Association of Iran, though it isn’t clear if many of the people within that organization knew about the enrichment operation.

    So all of this wringing of hands the European community has done over a nuclear Iran has given Tehran time to build a bomb-resistant facility, lessening the effect of an Iraeli strike (which is what most of the world has been secretly hoping would happen to solve the problem for them so they could continue to wring their hands).

    All of this while US law enforcement rolls up three separate terrorist plots, according to Fox News;

    Federal officials said Thursday that the cases are not connected to each other or the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York.

    Michael C. Finton, 29, who also went under the name Talib Islam, was arrested Wednesday in Springfield, Ill., after federal officials said he attempted to set off explosives in a van outside a federal courthouse in the Illinois capital.

    Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, was arrested Thursday in Dallas after federal officials said he placed what he believed to be a car bomb in a parking garage beneath the 60-story Fountain Place office tower.

    These events have kicked the President’s domestic agenda off of the front page, but they expose the weaknesses in our foreign policy.

  • Honduran stand-off

    The constitutional government of Honduras finds itself more isolated from the rest of the world every day. With ousted president Zelaya sequestered in the Brazillian embassy and the the US State Department screaming in their ear, the de facto government has offered several options to settle the differences between the opposition and their own Constitution. In fact yesterday, the Micheletti government offered up another option;

    Mr. Micheletti offered to hold direct talks with Mr. Zelaya if the ousted president recognized the validity of elections scheduled for Nov. 29. Mr. Zelaya declined the offer, calling it “manipulation.”

    A simple offer, a simple solution to the stand off – but Zelaya knowing he has the backing of the US State Department and the OAS in direct contradiction to the principles of the Honduran Constitution, he sees no need to concede even on iota in any direction. Even the UN has turned against Honduras;

    Adding to pressure on Mr. Micheletti’s government, the U.N. temporarily suspended cooperation with Honduras’s election commission ahead of the November poll, saying conditions weren’t in place for a credible vote.

    Yeah, I remember the concerns that the UN had for elections in Iran and Argentina, too. They almost broke their own necks trying to look the other way during post-election violence in Tehran and when a suitcase load of cash was discovered on it’s way from Chavez’ government to Christine Kirschner’s campaign chest.

    One 65-year-old has been reported killed in Honduras and that death can be laid at the feet of the Zelaya, our own State Department, the Brazilian government, Hugo Chavez, the OAS and the UN – all complicit in violating Honduras own Constitution to force them to accept an illegitmate president.

  • Zelaya returns to Honduras

    The Washington Times reports that Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras despite the fact that he could be imprisoned. Hiding out in the Brazilian Embassy, Zelaya called for his supporters to peacefully protest in the capital and for the army to refrain from pounding on them;

    Mr. Zelaya told the Associated Press that he was trying to establish contact with the interim government to start negotiations on a solution to the standoff that started when soldiers who flew him out of the country June 28.

    “As of now, we are beginning to seek dialogue,” he said by telephone, though he gave few details. Talks moderated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias have been stalled for weeks over the interim government’s refusal to accept Mr. Zelaya’s reinstatement.

    He also summoned his countrymen to come to the capital for peaceful protests and urged the army to avoid attacking his supporters. “It is the moment of reconciliation,” he said.

    Roberto Micheletti, the interim president of the de facto government pleads his case in the Washington Post;

    The international community has wrongfully condemned the events of June 28 and mistakenly labeled our country as undemocratic. I must respectfully disagree. As the true story slowly emerges, there is a growing sense that what happened in Honduras that day was not without merit. On June 28, the Honduran Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya for his blatant violations of our constitution, which marked the end of his presidency. To this day, an overwhelming majority of Hondurans support the actions that ensured the respect of the rule of law in our country.

    Underlying all the rhetoric about a military overthrow are facts. Simply put, coups do not leave civilians in control over the armed forces, as is the case in Honduras today. Neither do they allow the independent functioning of democratic institutions — the courts, the attorney general’s office, the electoral tribunal. Nor do they maintain a respect for the separation of powers. In Honduras, the judicial, legislative and executive branches are all fully functioning and led by civilian authorities.

    The country’s elections are still scheduled for November, and Micheletti promises to turn over the reins of his goverment in keeping with the Honduran Constitution;

    The winner of the November election will take office as president of Honduras in January 2010. At that moment my transitional administration will cease, and the newly sworn-in president will hold all the authority vested to him by our country’s constitution.

    So with just a few months left in his term, why would Zelaya even bother to risk the lives of common Hondurans, except for the sake of his own ego? Mary Anastacia O’Grady wrote in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that Obama has left the matter for Secretary of State Clinton to settle and she’s been doing a piss-poor job of it. This is a problem that the Hondurans need to settle on their own – like the Obama Administration is handling unrest in Iran.

  • Dropping all of the balls

    While the Obama Administration focuses on what it considers important, namely the take over of health care, balls are dropping every where else. They’ve proved themselves to be a Carter-esque paper tiger with Russia when they disappointed Eastern Europe by capitulating to Putin’s pressure to stop building the missile shield to protect our allies.

    Putting pressure on New York’s accidental governor to withdraw from next year’s race has only made David Paterson dig in for a tough battle against his own party.

    The Obama Administration has allowed Hillary Clinton to fight their battles in Honduras, according to Wall Street Journal’s Mary O’Grady, and fighting against the Constitutional law of Honduras has proved to be a fool’s errand.

    General Stanley McChrystal has asked for more troops in Afghanistan which has opened an opportunity for cash-starved anti-war groups who are planning an assault on the Obama war policy next week.

    Andrew Breitbart is promising that even more videos are coming from the O’Keefe/Giles team against the Obama allies in ACORN.

    Obviously, actual leadership is harder than campaigning, but focusing on taking over the economy isn’t so important as letting shallow reasoning govern the nation isn’t working. It seems that Obama’s foreign policy seems to be “do the opposite of Bush” and it doesn’t seem to be us any good.

  • Will Germany Spain-out on us?

    Deutsche Welle reports that al Qaeda released a video today warning Germany of an attack there if the election doesn’t go the terrorists’ way;

    In the video, a man identified as Bekkay Harrach from Bonn demanded an end to Germany’s military mission in Afghanistan. He spoke German, and was dressed in a suit and tie and stood in front of a red curtain.

    “If the people choose to continue the war, they have passed judgment on themselves. The parliamentary election is the only opportunity for the people to influence its country’s politics,” Harrach says, “When the last German soldier is withdrawn from Afghanistan, the last mujahedeen will be withdrawn from Germany.”

    Although the war hasn’t been an issue in the upcoming September 27th election, this could effect the outcome if the Germans go all Spain on us. The Germans government has warned of increased travel from terrorists before the release of this video.

    A lot may depend on how much Germans can’t count on the US to be there for them in an emergency.

  • Obama scraps missile defense

    It’s easy to develop a foreign policy when your only guide is to do the exact opposite of your predecessor. That seems to be the Obama Administration’s plan. Czech and Polish governments have announced that the Obama Administration told them that he’s abandoning the Bush missile defense installations in those countries to coddle the Russians according to the Washington Post/AP;

    Under the plan, which had been proposed by the Bush administration to defend the United States and its European allies against a possible missile attack from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East, 10 interceptor rockets were to have been stationed in Poland and a radar system based in the Czech Republic.

    But Russia was livid over the prospect of having U.S. interceptor rockets in countries so close to its territory, and the Obama administration has sought to improve strained ties with the Kremlin.

    A top Russian lawmaker praised the move.

    “The U.S. president’s decision is a well-thought and systematic one,” said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. “It reflects understanding that any security measure can’t be built entirely on the basis of one nation.”

    A rational person has to wonder why the Russians are so concerned about a DEFENSE system. Of course, it was defense systems that broke the Soviet Union in the first place, wasn’t it?

  • On the wrong side of history

    The United States government has withdrawn the diplomatic visa of the de facto Honduran president, Roberto Micheletti, to force him to step down from his position and to force the return of ousted Manuel Zelaya to that position (Reuters link);

    “We received letters from the U.S. Consulate in Honduras which say that because of the what happened on June 28, our visas have been suspended,” Micheletti said.

    Micheletti has not visited the United States since the June 28 coup. A month after the coup, the U.S. State Department said it had revoked the diplomatic visas of four members of Honduras’ de facto government, but did not name them.

    So in a few weeks, the Hondurans have their national elections and all of this will be history. Does anyone think the new Honduran government will just forgive and forget how the Obama Administration injected itself into the constitutional discussion on this Latin neighbor?

    The BBC says that the Obama Administration has also halted aid to Honduras;

    Last week, the US halted all non-humanitarian aid to Honduras – about $30m (£18.4m) – in the wake of the coup.

    The State Department said the US needed to take strong action given the failure of the replacement regime to restore “democratic, constitutional rule”.

    By whose standard? The Honduran Constitution demanded that the government imprison Zelaya for conspiring to alter the document. They let him off easy. Who is the US State Department to determine what is “constitutional rule” in Honduras? How do they know more about “constitutional rule” than the Honduran Supreme Court which ordered the Honduran Army to remove Zelaya?

  • Massachusetts Senator needs to read the Constitution

    Former Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on Fox News Sunday and reminded us all why we miss him (Wall Street Journal link);

    Mr. Cheney described himself as being isolated among advisers to then-President George W. Bush, who ultimately decided against direct military action.

    “I was probably a bigger advocate of military action than any of my colleagues,” Mr. Cheney said in response to questions about whether the Bush administration should have launched a pre-emptive attack prior to handing over the White House to Barack Obama.

    “I thought that negotiations could not possibly succeed unless the Iranians really believed we were prepared to use military force,” Mr. Cheney said. “And to date, of course, they are still proceeding with their nuclear program and the matter has not yet been resolved.”

    He went on to criticize the Obama Administration for beginning a witch hunt against CIA agents who extracted intelligence from our more reticent enemies;

    “It’s clearly a political move; there’s no other rationale for them to be doing this,” the former vice president said of the Obama administration review.

    Mr. Cheney was particularly critical of Mr. Obama’s statement that he had not influenced the attorney general’s decision, and charged the president with waffling on his earlier pledge not to unearth old allegations. “I think he’s trying to duck the responsibility for what’s going on here, and I think it’s wrong,” Mr. Cheney said of the president.

    Of course, this raised the ire of the only Senator from Massachusetts, who happened to appear on another show on some lesser known and lesser watched network.

    “Dick Cheney has shown through the years, frankly, a disrespect for the constitution for sharing of information to Congress and a [dis]respect for the law and I’m not surprised that he’s upset about this,” Kerry told me this morning on “This Week.”

    I’d like the only Senator from Massachusetts to point out for the rest of us where in the Constitution it says that the Executive branch of government needs to share information with the legislative branch. Well, other than this line;

    [The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient….

    The only Senator from Massachusetts obviously isn’t well read and probably doesn’t even understand his duties and responsibilities. Massachusetts is obviously poorly served by their lone Senator, who until recently, voted the way his mentor told him to vote. Obviously, thinking for himself isn’t one of his strong suits.