US President Barack Obama says he takes the blame personally for recent lapses in the US security system, in the fight against terrorism. The White House issued a report on the 25 December bomb attempt of a Northwest Airlines plane near Detroit. It calls for quicker and better exchanges of information about possible threats. People who have known the man who attempted to blow up the plane, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, are recalling the very religious and quiet man they knew.
Links to other sites: The Globe & Mail, Canada, National Public Radio, US, Times, UK and White House summary of report
US President Barack Obama is widely expected to announce Tuesday 1 December that the US will send up to 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. He phoned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Sunday and met at the White House with top military and diplomatic officials to brief them and order them to implement a new strategy, the White House announced, without confirming the actual number of troops. He then spent much of Monday discussing US strategy with Afghanistan allies, including Australia, Canada and the UK, in what White House spokesperson Robin Gibbs called “an international effort.” Obama will give a speech at the West Point military academy Tuesday explaining why the US is involved in Afghanistan and announcing details of the new strategy. The head of the US military programme in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has requested 40,000 troops.
Links to other sites: CNN, New York Times, NPR, Times, UK
No end yet to Start talks in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama met Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev on the fringes of the Apec meeting in Singapore 14 November, to discuss the resumption of the Start talks on reducing both countries’ nuclear arsenals. Obama hailed the “excellent progress over the last few months”repors the Moscow Times. The Start talks resume in Geneva Monday 16 November.
The current treaty expires 5 December, and though hopeful that a new treaty will be hammered out before the end of the year, Obama’s team suggests a bridging agreement may be necessary because the treaty is unlikely to be signed and ratified in time, reports Fox News.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US President Barack Obama will accompany his wife Michelle to Copenhagen to promote the city of Chicago’s bid as host of the 2016 Olympic Games, the White House announced 28 September. “It’s a city of broad shoulders, big hearts, and bold dreams. A city of legendary sports figures, legendary sports venues and legendary sports fans. We want these games!”, Obama said at the White House in early September. Obama was a senator representing the state of Illinois before becoming president. He lived there for 25 years.
The Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee (IOC) holds its 13th Congress in Copenhagen from 3 to 5 October, and will announce its choice of the host city.
The leaders of the G-20 group of the world’s 20 most important economies, meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have said that the grouping will become the world’s foremost economic coordination body, the White House announced late 24 September. This is a recognition of the importance of emerging economic powers such as Brazil, China and India. The G-8 comprised only the world’s top industrialized nations. In Pittsburgh the US is urging that institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reflect the changing economic circumstances as well. South Korea will preside the next G-20 meeting. Los Angeles Times, New York Times
Two US journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were freed from prison in North Korea and flew home to Los Angeles with former US President Bill Clinton late 4 August. The two women were jailed in March for illegally entering the country. They were released on orders from Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s leader, to show the country’s “humanitarian and peace-loving policy” after Clinton went to North Korea on an unannounced visit 3 August. The families told US media they were “overjoyed.” North Korean sources said Clinton and Kim had wide-ranging talks and that Clinton brought a personal message from US President Barack Obama. The White House denied this and repeated that Clinton’s visit was purely a personal one. Nevertheless, the chartered plane carrying them home landed at a military base in Japan with no comment from the military about how long they would be there. BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An empty desk in Geneva is receiving more than normal attention: that of the US ambassador, whose unwieldy title is US Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations. The post has been empty since January 2009 when Warren Tichenor left. Tichenor, a Texan and George W Bush appointment, may not have been a household name, but the new US ambassador could well quickly become one, thanks to sharper interest in how the US will work with other countries on several issues, many of them through international organizations based in Geneva.
This is the era of the Obama administration, with its promise of new relationships, and the period of Hillary Clinton at the helm of the US State Department, re-booting the Start talks with her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva in March 2009. Obama told a group of ambassadors in Washington Wednesday 29 July that “I came into office with a strong commitment to renew American diplomacy, and to start a new era of engagement with the world. This must be a moment when we engage on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect, so that we can build new partnerships for progress.”
Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (image: Cisac, Stanford University)
One name being bandied about for the Geneva ambassador’s job is that of Obama fundraiser Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe. Le Temps wrote some weeks ago that she will be named, basing the information on “sources close” to President Obama, and IP Watch, an intellectual property industry newsletter, named her as the likely candidate in a 29 July article.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met 16 June, with the Financial Times saying it “appeared [to be] one of the most tense encounters between the sides for several years” over the issue of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. They disagreed strongly both on US insistance that growth of the settlements stop and Israel’s argument that George W Bush agreed to some expansion.
Hillary Clinton broke her elbow later in the day when she slipped and fell on it as she was heading for the White House. She was treated and released but will have surgery to mend it in coming weeks. CNN
The White House has convinced the US Senate to tone down the language of its version of the $900 billion US economic stimulus package following angry outcries from other governments that the “buy America” language would hamper efforts to recover from the global economic crisis and flies in the face of trade agreements. IHT/New York Times
US President Barack Obama Monday pushed to make the US energy-independent (BBC), to rapidly get state emission standards in place and give states greater freedom (IHT) in setting their own emissions standards for cars, part of energy directives that will reassure Europeans, who saw George W Bush’s energy policies as a stumbling block, writes Reuters.
W Mark Felt has died in Santa Rosa, California at the age of 95. He is described by the New York Times as “the most famous anonymous source” in American history” for the role he kept quiet for more than 30 years. Felt was the secret source for reporter Bob Woodward of the Washington Post as the Watergate scandal unfolded in the early 1970s, eventually leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Felt was the associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and fought efforts by the White House to end FBI investigations into “illegal wire tappings, burglaries and money laundering.”
US President-elect Barack Obama will announce his White House security team: secretary of state, national security advisor, defense secretary. His new team is widely expected to show a greater emphasis on diplomacy and aid, with a larger team deployed around the world aimed at “preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states.” New York Times
US President George W Bush and President-elect Barack Obama held two hours of discussions at the White House Monday while their wives toured the residential area which will become home for the Obama family in January. NPR
