US-Israel Video & Transcript: President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu Speak to Press

Video and transcript of the remarks by US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after their meeting in the White House today:

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Well, let me, first of all, welcome again Prime Minister Netanyahu, who I think has now been here seven times during the course of my presidency.  And I want to indicate that the frequency of these meetings is an indication of the extraordinary bonds between our two countries, as is the opportunity for the Prime Minister to address Congress during his visit here.

Click to read more ...

Middle East Video and Transcript: The Obama Speech

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

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Please, have a seat.  Thank you very much.  I want to begin by thanking Hillary Clinton, who has traveled so much these last six months that she is approaching a new landmark -- one million frequent flyer miles.  (Laughter.)  I count on Hillary every single day, and I believe that she will go down as one of the finest Secretaries of State in our nation’s history.

Click to read more ...

Afghanistan: 12 Die in Protest over NATO Raid (King)

Protest in Taloqan on Wednesday (Reuters)Furious anti-American protesters poured into the streets of a city in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, shouting out objections to an overnight U.S.-led military raid that killed four people, including two women. Subsequent clashes with security forces trying to quell the demonstration killed 12 people, provincial officials said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a strongly worded statement condemning the raid on the outskirts of Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, and dismissing NATO's contention that the four people killed in it were armed insurgents.

Click to read more ...

Iran Transcript: President Ahmadinejad's TV Interview

A transcript of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's live interview on Sunday night on the State broadcaster IRIB Channel 2:

---

What do you think about the execution of the laws in the past five months?

My assessment is very positive. The people of Iran have accomplished something here. Everyone thought that that the economic situation would not improve. But we have accomplished this and we have proud results to show. I will describe some of them to you.

One of the main things was to cut down the costs. One of the major issues was the cost of bread. I can tell you that we have cut down the costs to about 30 percent. In a short time, we have managed to do this. I won't say that the quality of bread everywhere is better than before, but it will be.

Click to read more ...

Pakistan Latest: Tehrik-e-Taliban Kill More than 80 in "Revenge for Bin Laden Death"

Photo: AFPThe Tehrik-e-Taliban on Friday claimed their first major strike in revenge for Osama bin Laden’s death as more than 80 people were killed and at least 115 were wounded in a suicide and bomb attack on FC personnel.

“This was the first revenge for Osama’s martyrdom. Wait for bigger attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

It was the deadliest attack in the nuclear-armed country this year and came with Pakistan’s military and civilian leadership plunged into crisis over the killing of the al Qaeda chief by US commandos on May 2.

Click to read more ...

Bin Laden Follow-Up: He Didn't Change the Arab World --- He Changed "America" (Engelhardt)

Bin Laden’s greatest wizardry was performed on us, not on the Arab world, where the movements he spawned from Yemen to North Africa have proven remarkably peripheral and unimportant.  He helped open us up to all the nightmares we could visit upon ourselves (and others) -- from torture and the creation of an offshore archipelago of injustice to the locking down of our own American world, where we were to cower in terror, while lashing out militarily.

In many ways, he broke us not on 9/11 but in the months and years after.

Click to read more ...

Pakistan's "Double Game": Its Hypocrisy and US Acquiescence (Rubin)

Head of Pakistan's ISI, Ahmed Shuja PashaWe give billions in aid to Pakistan’s military and civilian government. Yet Pakistan is harboring our enemies and even the enemies, one could argue, of its own healthy survival. Portions of our money are being funneled into the variety of insurgent networks whose fighters are killing American soldiers, Afghan soldiers, American civilians, Afghan civilians, European civilians, Pakistani civilians—mothers, fathers, children on multiple continents. Why, asks a US army major, did all his friends die in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province when the real problem is on the other side of the border? Why, asks a twelve-year-old Afghan girl in Kandahar whose family has been wiped out by US air strikes, are you bombing us? How has this come to pass?

Click to read more ...

Bin Laden Follow-Up: The Crisis in Pakistan (Zaidi)

Bombing in Lahore, December 2009Could it actually be that Pakistan is now so bereft of capacity that it cannot defend itself against a ragtag set of ruffians and thugs who use teenaged boys as human missiles? Or alternatively, could it be that Pakistan is now so far off the moral deep-end that it knowingly and deliberately assists and enables the world’s most wanted terrorists, despite making claims to the contrary?

Click to read more ...

Bin Laden Follow-Up: Scott Lucas on the BBC "Is the Video of Osama Significant?"

A discussion this morning with BBC Coventry and Warwickshire --- it begins with the release by the US of a silent video showing Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan compound but then considers why the Americans put out the footage, what it shows about bin Laden, and what significance, if any, this latest development has in the conflict within and beyond Pakistan.

The item begins about the 1:03.45 mark.

The Death of Osama Bin Laden: EA's Coverage

7 MAY

Sean Foley looks at the little-noted effect of this week's events: "Bin Laden Feature: Why The Significance of His Death May Be in East Asia"

Steve Hewitt offers a perspective on why the Al Qa'eda leader spent the last years of his life in the town of Abbottabad: "Bin Laden Feature: How US Drones Drove Osama to His Final Location"

Click to read more ...