Muammer Qaddafi and the "Assassination Plot" against Barack Obama

Although it was emphasised that the President was not in an immediate danger, the Secret Service in Washington stated on Monday that a man who was plotted to kill Barack Obama had been arrested by the Turkish National Police two days before the President came to Turkey. According to the Saudi newspaper Al Watan, the suspect of Syrian descent confessed that he wanted to stab Obama with a knife.

In response to reports that the man in custody was carrying a press card of Al Jazeera,  the network's bureau chief in Ankara, Yucef al-Sharif, stated that the suspect had almost certainly forged the card as the Turkish security services knew everyone who worked in Al-Jazeera’s Ankara office.

So up to now, this plot seemed to be simply that of an extreme individual, just as it had with  four people were arrested in August 2008 on suspicion that they wanted to harm Obama. However, we may now have word that the assassination attempt is a new and ‘deep’ point of view to ‘shed light into Obama’s inauspiciousness’.

The source? Libya’s Muammer Qaddafi.

He said  that “Obama is a flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness,” so he feared that the President, whose “political discourse has been reasonable so far, breaking with the arrogance that was prevalent in statements by former US presidents”, could be assassinated.  Qaddafi points to the shootings of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King as historical examples.

Could it be that a Libya that gave up its clandestine weapons of mass destruction programs, put an end to its missile threat to  US bases in the Mediterranean, and paid compensation to the families of the Lockerbie victims  --- and who, in return, succeeded in getting US and international sanctions lifted --- is guarding against intensifying criticism of its ‘undemocratic’ regime?

Or is Qaddafi just being a concerned citizen of the world?

Pakistan: Leading Cleric Pulls Out of Peace Deal

Prominent cleric Sufi Mohammad (pictured) has announced that he is withdrawing from a peace deal, arranged in late February, between local groups and the Government in the Swat Valley in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan.

Mohammad brokered the deal between Islamabad and his son-in-law, Maulana Fazlullah, the commander of Taliban forces in the Valley. The agreement received much attention, because it allowed sharia law, and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari pulled back from signing it.

Mohammad blamed Zardari for the breakdown of the deal and warned that the Pakistani Government will be responsible for any bloodshed. The province's political leadership is sending a delegation to hear Mohammad's complaints.

If the deal does break down, it poses another challenge to the American strategy against the "safe havens" in northwest Pakistan. A rival "Taliban" group under Baitullah Mehsud has stepped up its attacks against Pakistani targets, and Fazlullah has warned that his supporters will challenge any US or Pakistani military operations.

You Think Blackwater was Scary? Wait til You Meet Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman is one of the biggest private contractors for the US military. To ensure they remain one of the biggest, they have released this promotional video.

After watching this, I'm not worried about Northrop's moneypot drying up; I'm more concerned that they could take over the US Government, let alone some tinpot regime, at any regime. I certainly think Secretary of Defense Robert Gates should watch his back as he's proposing cutting back missile defence and big-money toys like the F-22 fighter jet and Northrop Grumman's "DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer".

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXH69lXyxNQ[/youtube]

The Engagement is Official: US, Iran in Nuclear Talks

Related Post: A Beginners' Guide to Engagement with Iran

The  initial news last night was that Undersecretary of State William Burns was in London in  "5+1" talks with Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China on Iran's nuclear programme. Then came the revelation. Iran will soon be there as well: Washington is dropping its policy of no direct discussions with Tehran. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the brief announcement, "There's nothing more important than trying to convince Iran to cease its efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon." You can choose the political spin on this from different newspapers. For both The New York Times and The Washington Post, "U.S. to Join Iran Talks Over Nuclear Program". For The Daily Telegraph, desperate to prove Tehran is giving way, "Iran Offered New Nuclear Talks". So let's leave it to a State Department official to make the concise summary, "It was kind of silly that we had to walk out of the room" whenever Iranians were nearby.

While Iranian media have highlighted the US change in position, there has been no official Iranian reaction to the news. However, the 5+1 meeting and Clinton's statement follow contact between US and the Iran at The Hague conference on Afghanistan. Ensuing signals indicated that Iran was happy to take up engagement: last week President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran will shake an "honest hand".

This American decision confirms a significant break from the Bush Administration's attempt to isolate Iran. First, Bush officials broke off direct contact with Tehran in May 2003, rejecting an Iranian letter which offered detailed talks. A double game followed: Washington would push for more economic sanctions against Iran while European countries persisted in negotations. When those negotiations were close to a breakthrough, the US Government would pull back from any agreement, and the finger-wagging --- from both the US and Iran --- would resume.

Perhaps more importantly, the offer of direct talks may put Obama's military commanders in their place. Last week both Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, pointedly warned that Israel would be attacking an operating Iranian nuclear facility. Vice President Joe Biden finally stepped in publicly, telling CNN that Israel "would be ill-advised" to carry out an airstrike.

The Obama Administration has also made this move despite (possibly because of) reports that President Ahmadinejad will today announce that the nuclear plant at Bushehr is now active. And it has done so despite yesterday's news that Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, detained in Iran since January, has been charged with espionage.

This is the clearest signal that Obama, in contrast to his predecessor, has decided that it is better to live with an Iran with a nuclear programme rather than to pursue confrontation. Doing so, Washington hopes to reap the benefit of Iranian assistance --- or non-interference --- with American initiatives from Afghanistan to the Middle East.

Obama Bows Down to Saudi King! The Controversy Continues....

Latest Post: Video Alert - Obama Does Not Bow to Saudi King

This blog entry should be considered a very important update on a very important event. In no way should it be seen as a shameless reminder that we have the video of the Obama bow/non-bow to Abdullah.

Full credit to my colleague Ali Yenidunya, who broke the story last Thursday of President Obama's bow of greeting to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and wrote ominously, "One thing we do know is that a younger Muslim always shows utmost respect to an older Muslim in public and is expected to kiss the latter’s hands. Hmm, we should think more about it."

Ali did get the Internet, or at least the right-thinking portion of it, moving.

His challenge, "It is time for Conservapedia to take some action," has been met. Our favourite on-line encyclopedia has updated its entry for Barack Hussein Obama, "Never before in the history of the U.S. has a president displayed such shocking deference to a foreign official."

The Weekly Standard initially fretted, "There’s [a] fawning you’ll never, ever know anything about and that is President Obama’s grovel before Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of the House of Saud," but a few days later, everyone was a-flutter about it (perhaps because The Weekly Standard kept banging on). Heck, even Camille Paglia wrote about it, and apparently she was a really important writer once upon a time.

But now the dramatic revelation: none of this happened. A White House aide says, ""It wasn't a bow. [President Obama] grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah."