Middle East Special: Live Analysis of Obama Speech as It is Delivered

1906 GMT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wastes no time in responding to Obama's speech. 

"Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of the viability of the one and only Jewish state."

See also Middle East Video and Transcript: The Obama Speech

Netanyahu then goes on to condemn the plan for Israel to withdraw to borders established in 1967, borders which "are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines."

"Without a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem outside the borders of Israel, no territorial concession will bring peace."

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Middle East: Obama Plans a Speech, But Little Prospect of Substance (Landler/Cooper)

Mr. Obama had considered laying out American parameters for a peace deal [between Israel and Palestine], several officials said — a move that [Secretary of State] Clinton favored, but one that would have put him at odds with his national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and his top Middle East adviser, Dennis Ross.

But the unity accord between Hamas and Fatah, the party of President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, effectively killed the plans to try to push through an American proposal, one administration official said. “It’s hard to imagine how we do that when Hamas hasn’t agreed” to recognize Israel’s right to exist and to forswear violence against Israel, the official said.

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Obama Protects US Secrets: The Prosecution of Thomas Drake (Mayer)

“The Bush people have been let off. The telecom companies got immunity [over illegal surveillance]. The only people Obama has prosecuted are the whistle-blowers.”

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Bin Laden Follow-Up: Osama, Obama, and the LOLs of History

How does a nation still looking for justice almost ten years after the worst terrorist attack in its history react when the attack's mastermind is captured? With solemnity, celebration, and the sharing of funny pics.

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Bin Laden Follow-Up: Obama Administration Frets About Withdrawal from Afghanistan & Tensions with Pakistan (But, Hey, We Sure Showed Iran)

UPDATE 0730 GMT: The Obama Administration's top journalist accomplices this morning? Reveal yourself, the editors and reporter Joshua Partlow of The Washington Post....

The headline blares, "Afghans Worry Bin Laden’s Death Could Weaken U.S. Resolve", and Partlow writes, "One persistent worry repeated here was that U.S. support for the war could erode at an accelerated pace now that America’s most wanted man is dead. With that decade-long goal achieved, Afghan officials said, the case for troop withdrawal becomes that much more convincing for Americans."

And how many Afghans does Partlow quote in what is effectively a PR piece for a continued US military presence?

Two. A "senior Afghan official" says, "Americans will forget Afghanistan again.” And Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan’s former interior minister, declares, “A warning to the United States and the rest of our NATO allies. This should not be seen as mission accomplished.”

Indeed, so intent is The Post on pushing this case that it includes, without apparent recognition, a quote that says something completely different:

President Hamid Karzai, who praised American troops for killing bin Laden, used the opportunity to reiterate his message that the locus of terrorism remains beyond Afghan borders. “For years we have said that the fight against terrorism is not in Afghan villages and houses. Stop bombarding Afghan villages and searching Afghan people.”

For some reason, I think that statement sends a far different message to the US military than "Please. Stay."

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Snap Reaction: The Significance of Killing Bin Laden

Will this development make a significant difference? Al Qa'eda's main symbol is now dead, but the movement may already have been dying --- its leadership structure in tatters, and the Muslim world turning away from terrorism and towards democracy, their influence was already waning.

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US Journal: The Spectacle of Donald Trump

I hope that serious politics will soon return front and centre to America’s life. In the meantime, I shall continue to enjoy my road trip down to Miami Beach as I listen to classical American music. I’m currently humming, “That’s the Way Country Boys Roll".

And I'm thinking of Donald Trump when I hear, "You Ain’t Much Fun Since I Stopped Drinkin’”.

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US Analysis: What General Petraeus' Move to CIA Means for Pro-Democracy Movements

Expect Petraeus to use his new position to build bridges with pro-democracy movements, and expect the US to back more opposition movements soon. Because if there is one thing that the Arab Spring has taught us, it's that the only certainty right now is that the people have all the power. Petraeus understands this, he's built his career on the concept, and I predict that this is exactly what Obama is counting on him to do as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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Obama Special: How the Administration Abandoned Its Promise to Close Guantanamo (Finn and Kornblut)

The one theme that repeatedly emerged in interviews was a belief that the White House never pressed hard enough on what was supposed to be a signature goal. Although the closure of Guantanamo Bay was announced in an executive order, which Obama signed on Jan. 22, 2009, the fanfare never translated into the kind of political push necessary to sustain the policy.

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US WikiLeaks Video: Obama on Bradley Manning "He Broke the Law"

So much for due process of law, "innocent before proven guilty", etc. --- President Obama condemns Private Bradley Manning, held by the military in effective solitary confinement for allegedly passing information to WikiLeaks.

Video and transcript via Andy Greenberg:

OBAMA: People can have philosophical views about....

[Questioner: unintelligible]

No, no, but look, I can’t conduct diplomacy on an open source. That’s not how…the world works. If you’re in the military, and…I have to abide by certain classified information. If I was to release stuff, information that I’m not authorized to release, I’m breaking the law....We’re a nation of laws. We don’t individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate....

He broke the law.

[Questioner: "You can make it harder to break the law."]

Well, what he did was he dumped....

[Questioner: something about President Nixon's prosecution of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg]

It wasn’t the same thing. What Ellsberg released wasn’t classified in the same way. So. Anyway. Alright.