Nouvelles en Langue Anglaise

Rappel du premier message :

U.S. clamps down on banking transactions; terror group finds new funding

By Robert Windrem and Garrett Haake
NBC News
updated 7:56 a.m. ET Nov. 14, 2008
Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. intelligence officials believe they've won many small victories against al-Qaida's ability to finance its operations, but they remain unable to put a concrete dollar figure on their impact.

That's because they have no reliable estimate of al-Qaida's overall budget, according to current and former U.S. counterterrorism officials, which means the only measures of the organization's economic health are sporadic, anecdotal and fragmentary.

"When you see a cell complaining that it hasn't received its monthly or biannual stipend and it's unable to pay the salaries of the people in the cell, unable to make the support payments to the families of terrorists living or dead, that's a tremendous indicator we have pressured the financial channel," said Adam Szubin, the director of the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the man in charge of tracking terrorist finance.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27644191

82-

avec Gov. Blagojevich, a Rahm Emmanuel a eu une conversation avec le governeur et plusieurs avec un de ses assistants a...

Obama's Top Aide Spoke to Blagojevich, Internal Review Shows
An internal review from Barack Obama's transition team shows there was no "inappropriate" discussions with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich about his alleged attempts to sell off Obama's vacant Senate seat.

An internal review from Barack Obama's transition team released Tuesday shows that the president-elect's chief of staff had a number of conversations with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his top aide, but that there was "no indication of inappropriate discussions" regarding the governor's alleged attempts to sell Obama's U.S. Senate seat.

The report also revealed that Obama, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and aide Valerie Jarrett were interviewed over a period of three days last week by federal investigators building a corruption case against Blagojevich. Prosecutors have said Obama is not implicated in the case.

The much-anticipated internal report, prepared by incoming White House attorney Greg Craig at Obama's request, said that Emanuel had one or two discussions over the phone with Blagojevich, as well as about four with the governor's chief of staff John Harris.

Harris was also arrested on corruption charges and has since resigned his post.

But Craig stressed that nobody on Obama's staff suspected that the governor might be trying to trade favors over Obama's Senate seat as prosecutors allege.

He said all contact between Obama's staff and the office of Blagojevich was strictly on the level.

"Only one member of the transition staff had any such contact," Craig told reporters on a conference call. "My inquiry determined that there was nothing at all inappropriate about those conversations."

Craig found that the president-elect had no contact with Blagojevich or any of his staff about the Senate seat he vacated to take over the presidency.

The report said Emanuel recommended Jarrett for the Senate seat in an early discussion with Blagojevich before he learned that Obama did not want to communicate any preference. Afterward, Emanuel gave Harris a list of other candidates whom Obama felt were qualified. But at no time was any quid pro quo discussed, according to the report.

The candidates initially floated by Emanuel were: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.; Rep. Jan Schakowsky; state comptroller Dan Hynes; and Illinois veterans affairs director Tammy Duckworth.

...

Obama's Top Aide Spoke to Blagojevich

The Change!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

JERUSALEM — Israel moved closer to invading Gaza, saying Thursday it had wrapped up preparations for a broad offensive after Palestinian militants fired about 100 rockets and mortar shells across the border in two days.

Israel's foreign minister brushed off a call for restraint from Egypt's president, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made a direct appeal to Gaza's people to pressure their leaders to stop the barrages. But the attacks showed no signs of ending. By nightfall, three rockets and 15 mortar shells had exploded in Israel.

Israeli Pesident Ehud Olmert issued his appeal in a rare interview with the Arabic language satellite channel al-Arabiya, saying Israel would not hesitate to respond with force if the attacks continued....

Last Minute warning to Gaza

Some New York politicians have complained that Kennedy is jumping in line of political figures with far more experience and has 'won' Hillary's Senate seat by virtue of her name alone.

AP
Thursday, December 25, 2008

ALBANY, New York -- Caroline Kennedy's bid to get appointed to the Senate and extend her family dynasty has run into the bare-knuckle world of New York state politics, where a backlash appears to be building against her.

Some politics-watchers have accused the 51-year-old daughter of President John F. Kennedy of a series of missteps last week doing a state tour, when she evaded questions and in one case was hustled away by an aide after meeting with reporters for all of 30 seconds.

At the same time, some New York politicians, privately and publicly, have complained that Kennedy is jumping the line ahead of political figures with far more experience and that she has become the presumed front-runner to take Secretary of State nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton's seat by virtue of her name alone.

As the process has dragged on, political adversaries have had all the more opportunities to undercut her candidacy through various attacks, sniping and newspaper leaks.

On Wednesday, Gov. David Paterson said the bickering sounded "more like the prelude to a high school program than the choosing of a U.S. senator."

"She's a pinata now," said Maurice Carroll, longtime New York political reporter and now pollster for Quinnipiac University. "Until Paterson says `yes' or `no,' she's going to be a pinata for everybody to take a whack at, using anonymous sources."

The whole process has left Kennedy damaged as she looks to inherit the seat that her slain uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, once held.

...

[url=]Caroline Kennedy under attack[/url]

By ANDREW HIGGINS and STEVE STECKLOW
An American-backed drive to curb misconduct at the United Nations is faltering, blighted by bureaucracy and accusations of retaliation against whistle-blowers.

Launched in December 2005 with advice from U.S. officials, the reform initiative was supposed to protect U.N. employees who exposed wrongdoing. The U.N. pledged this would ensure the "highest standards of integrity."

Since then, the organization has been hit by numerous allegations of misconduct, from claims that U.N. peacekeepers in Congo traded guns for gold with rebels to accusations of corruption by U.N. employees in Kosovo.

Instead of a streamlined system to process complaints, the U.N. has set up no fewer than eight separate ethics offices, each with its own guidelines, deadlines for claims and jurisdiction. Other parts of the U.N. also handle allegations of misconduct, including an ombudsman's office.

"The U.N. isn't serious about cleaning up its act," says James Wasserstrom, a former U.N. official in Kosovo who, after becoming a whistle-blower himself last year, was placed under investigation by the U.N. A 25-year veteran of the U.N., Mr. Wasserstrom, an American, was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing and recently filed a retaliation complaint with a U.N. appeals panel.

The U.N., says Mr. Wasserstrom, "uses the whistle-blowing program to get its most ethical staff to stick their heads above ground in order to chop them off."

The U.N. denies this and says it doesn't tolerate retaliation against staff members who report misdeeds. The U.N. is "very, very diligent in pursuing" wrongdoing, says Angela Kane, the organization's under-secretary-general for management. She says there has been a "great culture change" in the organization.

...
U.N. Push to Stem Misconduct Flounders

Evidemment, il en est fort peu question dans la presse - L'U.N. etant intouchable, ou... presque

CHICAGO -- An attorney for Gov. Rod Blagojevich has asked the Illinois House committee considering whether to impeach the governor to subpoena more than a dozen witnesses, including President-elect Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff and a senior adviser.

State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie said Thursday that the House committee received a letter from Blagojevich attorney Ed Genson asking it to subpoena Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett and more than a dozen others, including Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Ms. Currie, the head of the committee, said she didn't yet know what the committee's response to Mr. Genson's request would be. However, she noted that the U.S. Attorney's office has already denied the panel's request to interview a list of people named in the criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich.



There was no immediate response Thursday to calls seeking comment from Mr. Genson, the Obama transition team and Mr. Jackson.

Mr. Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 and charged with trying to sell Mr. Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press

Associated Press

With brothers Mike, Marc, Nick and Chris all carrying on distinguished military careers, opening presents and having Christmas dinner together just has not been possible.

With brothers Mike, Marc, Nick and Chris all carrying on distinguished military careers, opening presents and having Christmas dinner together just has not been possible. Until now.

Until now

A 2003 Illinois Good-Governance Measure Supported by Obama Apparently Backfired in Hospital-Construction Scandal

By JOHN R. EMSHWILLER and CHRISTOPHER COOPER
President-elect Barack Obama helped enact an Illinois good-government reform measure while serving as a state senator in 2003 that appeared to inadvertently have aided Gov. Rod Blagojevich in an alleged corruption scheme involving hospital construction.

Mr. Obama backed legislation that revamped the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. The panel was responsible for approving major hospital expansion projects and was seen at the time as unwieldy and tainted by cronyism. The bill shrank the size of the board and set new limits on a governor's ability to stack the panel with members of his own political party.

But Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, put together a friendly, five-member majority on the shrunken board that included members of both parties -- board members whom Mr. Blogajevich and his allies used to extract money from companies seeking approval to build medical facilities, according to the federal criminal complaint filed this month against the governor. The alleged health-board abuses were part of what prosecutors say was a broader scheme by Mr. Blagojevich to obtain money for political favors, including the attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated last month by Mr. Obama. Mr. Blagojevich has denied the charges.

There is no indication that President-elect Obama was involved in any hospital board wrongdoing. But his role in the legislation shows how he became a useful, though apparently unwitting, ally to Mr. Blagojevich's alleged schemes, sometimes conducted under the "reform" slogan that both men

...

Pas encore a la Maison Blanche et une premiere lecon en politique pour Obama: meme prises avec les meilleures intentions, des decisions politiques peuvent avoir des effets contraires aux expectatives - Ex: La loi concernant les dons aux partis politiques (Kennedy - .... McCain)

Law

In an effort to prove the Illinois governor's innocence, his lawyers ask the Illinois House panel to subpoena two of Obama's top aides and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Thursday, December 25, 2008
Lawyers for embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich want two key aides to President-elect Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. subpoenaed, according to Chicago media reports.

Blagojevich's legal team has asked the Illinois House panel that members of Obama's incoming administration testify before the House impeachment committee, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, WBBM-TV and the Chicago Sun-Times reported late Wednesday.

Ed Genson, Blagojevich's chief lawyer, said testimony from the aides will prove the governor's insistence that he did nothing illegal to fill Obama's now vacant U.S. Senate seat.

The news comes days after Obama's team released an internal review that confirmed no "inappropriate" discussions had taken place in the Blagojevich probe.

The report said Emanuel was the only adviser to talk to Blagojevich and his top aide John Harris on the subject of the Senate seat. The incoming chief of staff was authorized to pass on the names of four people he considered qualified to take over his seat: Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Jackson Jr.

Federal prosecutors asked the Illinois House impeachment committee not to delve into the criminal charges against Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday, a request that could hasten a decision on whether to boot Blagojevich from office.

In a letter, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald warned the committee that interviewing witnesses and discussing documents related to the charges against Blagojevich could undermine his criminal investigation. He declined to give the committee documents and other information about his probe, but left open the possibility of giving the committee copies of Blagojevich conversations captured by federal wiretaps.

"Any inquiry into these topics, as well as the taking of testimony from present and former members of the governor's staff, could significantly compromise the ongoing criminal investigation," Fitzgerald wrote.

Committee members had promised to abide prosecutors' recommendations about what should be off limits, so Fitzgerald's request means the panel won't conduct its own investigation of possible criminal activity. They have said that if they can't pursue the criminal charges, then their fact-gathering work is largely done.

State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, the committee chairwoman, said a decision on whether to recommend an impeachment vote by the full House could come the week of Jan. 5.

Blagojevich is accused of trying to use his authority as governor to appoint Obama's Senate replacement to get cash or a lucrative job for himself, starting days before Obama's Nov. 4 election through Dec. 5. The governor has denied any criminal wrongdoing and has resisted multiple calls for his resignation, including from Obama.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

Blog 'miracle' saves Christmas for hard-luck family

By Oliver Janney

A family facing foreclosure is anything but a unique story in these troubled economic times.

Daniel and Ebony Sampson with their children. "It's a personal miracle," she says of how their home was saved.

But this is a happier story of one family whose financial ruin was averted by the actions of a friend, the compassion of strangers, the networking power of the Internet and the holiday spirit of giving.

"This is our Christmas story," said Ebony Sampson. "It's going to be told for generations and generations to come."

Sampson, who lives in Aberdeen, Maryland, with her husband, Daniel, and their two young children, has overcome more hardship than one person should ever have to face. When she was in the 10th grade, she lost her entire family in a horrific car accident. Raised by a grandmother in New York, Ebony eventually used some life-insurance money from her parents' death to buy the home in Aberdeen, near where she grew up.

But in June, Daniel got sick. After several tests, his doctors concluded that he was suffering from salmonella after eating a tainted tomato. As a new employee of Bank of America, he had not accrued enough paid time off to keep his job as a credit-card account manager.

Suddenly, the sole breadwinner in the Sampson household was out of work. Though the Sampsons received unemployment checks from the government, the money wasn't enough to make ends meet.

...

Somehow, the couple maintained their sense of humor. Ebony Sampson called one of her oldest friends, Jaki Grier, and jokingly asked her if she had $10,000. Jaki told her, "Sure, just let me open up my invisible purse!"

But then Grier got an idea.

A self-described geek, Grier started blogging years ago. Since then, she's contributed to a magazine's Web site and regularly posts thoughts and life happenings on her LiveJournal page. So, she published Ebony and Daniel's story, along with a link where people could make a donation.

At the most, Jaki thought she could raise enough money to help the Sampsons pay a security deposit on an apartment after their home was auctioned.

But donations started pouring in. Within 24 hours, Grier's blog had raised $1,000, far exceeding her expectations. People started linking to Grier's blog from sites across the Internet and around the country.

Attorneys posted legal advice. Others in similar situations offered sympathy. One woman sent a donation with a note that said she had just lost her own home but wanted to help anyway. Another woman wrote that she didn't have a car but would walk to her grocery store with a jar of change and donate it to the cause.

Yet another e-mail came from a woman who was unemployed, with no job prospects. She donated a dollar.

With every donation, the total raised ticked higher and higher on Grier's blog.

"Everybody wants to give to a charity, but so many times when you give to a charity you don't really see where your money goes," Grier said. "At least with this, you saw the little [donations] ticker go. I think that made people excited."

Four days after Grier's blog post, she had raised $3,400 -- enough to repair the Sampsons' car. That night, Grier went to bed ecstatic. The next morning she checked her PayPal account and was stunned to find the balance had ballooned to $10,900.

...

"It doesn't seem real to me, and so I just thank everyone out there that cares," Ebony Sampson said. "There really was no hope for us. Then, out of nowhere, just the kindness of strangers, just people that came and, you know, provided for us. Jaki was our beacon of light that led them to us.

"It's a personal blessing. It's a personal miracle. It makes you understand what the season is all about."

CNN

By DAN BILEFSKY

Published: December 26, 2008
SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina — Thirteen years after a war in which 100,000 people were killed, a majority of them Muslims, Bosnia is undergoing an Islamic revival.

More than half a dozen new madrasas, or religious high schools, have been built in recent years, while dozens of mosques have sprouted, including the King Fahd, a sprawling $28 million complex with a sports and cultural center.

Before the war, fully covered women and men with long beards were almost unheard of. Today, they are common.

Many here welcome the Muslim revival as a healthy assertion of identity in a multiethnic country where Muslims make up close to half the population.

But others warn of a growing culture clash between conservative Islam and Bosnia’s avowed secularism in an already fragile state.

Two months ago, men in hoods attacked participants at a gay festival in Sarajevo, dragging some people from vehicles and beating others while they chanted, “Kill the gays!” and “Allahu Akbar!” Eight people were injured.

Muslim religious leaders complained that the event, which coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, was a provocation. The organizers said they had sought to promote minority rights and meant no offense.

...

Islamic Revival in Bosnia

Bloodiest Day for Palestinians in 20 Years Israel says it will expand airstrikes that have killed 155 in Hamas-ruled Gaza 'as necessary,' as Hamas vows revenge
• PHOTOS: Israeli Strikes Hit Gaza (Warning: Graphic)
• U.S. Condemns Hamas in Midst of Israeli Strikes
• Arab Nations Protest Israeli Air Strike in Gaza

FOX News

======

je ne peux m'empecher de faire la liaison entre le soutien apporte par certains pays a saddam en 2002/2003 et le soutien apporte au Hamas, avec les memes consequences desastreuses et les memes crix d'horreur et de desapprobation lorsque le pire arrive!

Pas en premiere page mais tout-de-meme

Story Highlights

NEW: Militants' rocket hits Gaza house, killing Palestinian cousins

NEW: Military says it allowed wounded Palestinian into Israel despite blockade

Trucks filled with commodities cross into Gaza at three locations

Militants have fired 110 rockets since Wednesday, Israel says

CNN

The left's intolerance of Rick Warren could slow Obama's progress.

The most thoughtful and interesting debate of the two-year-long presidential campaign occurred last August at Saddleback Church between John McCain and Barack Obama, moderated by Saddleback pastor Rick Warren. So it is notable that President-elect Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inauguration next month has brought forth hyperpartisan invective from the Democratic left. It has spent the past week conveying to the world its disappointment and disgust with the choice of Pastor Warren because he opposes gay marriage and abortion.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said that "By inviting Rick Warren to your Inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender [LGBT] Americans have a place at your table."

The head of People for the American Way, Kathryn Kolbert, is "deeply disappointed." She says Mr. Obama should have picked someone with "consistent mainstream American values."

Mais c'est justement "consistent mainstream American values" C'est bien pour ca qu'Obama l'a choisi...

Perhaps the most telling comment came from a "very disappointed" Rep. Barney Frank, who pointed out that during the campaign Senator Obama's "stated commitment to LGBT rights won him the strong support of the great majority of those who support that cause." Mr. Frank is putting down a marker; the left will monitor whether the new President deserves their continued support after the Warren-blessed Inauguration.

During the famous and corrosive Culture Wars, both sides accused the other of unremitting intolerance. Our own longstanding view has been that conferring protected legal status on the most politicized issues in those disputes, such as abortion and gay marriage, properly belongs inside the political system of the states, where diverse populations can work toward a political settlement.

Californians did so in November when they voted to pass Prop. 8, in effect disapproving of legal status for gay marriage. Rick Warren, an evangelical minister, as well as the Mormon Church worked for Prop. 8's passage. It won by about 52% to 47%.

...

Obama and the left

les souris dansent

obama est en vacances et pendant ce temps, il se trame des choses
j'ai rarement vu autant de campagnes de dénigrement contre un président pas encore en poste
certes j'ai vu "un peu" de dénigrement contre bush, mais il était en poste et déjà responsable de beaucoup de conneries
mais là, il n'a même pas eu le temps de prendre une décision qu'on commence la sape
(et j'ai voté pour personne, hein... pas pris parti aux élections, rien... j'attends)

amazing

jam,

Ah bon? j'ai poste ici quoi que ce soit qui ne soit pas la verite concernant President-Elect Obama? Je l'ai, depuis qu'il est elu, raille, attaquant son plysique, sa facon de parler, sa foi, sa famille, etc... etc.... etc...? J'ai poste des "cartoons" irrespectueux? J'ai repris toutes ses actions, faisant de lui un monstre, un voleur d'election, un lache?

Apres plus de 9 ans (depuis qu'il a annonce sa candidature a la presidence) de jet de boue et de vitriol contre Pres. Bush par l'opposition, "on" ne supporterait pas que les informations, non reportees par la presse francophone (scandale illinois, entre autres - le prix de la maison dans laquelle Barack passe ses vacances avec sa famille, une autre - qui aurait fait le sujet d'une campagne de derision par le NY Times et les autres) le soient ici?

Il y aurait vraiment de quoi rire si ca n'etait pas si triste. Au fait, je n'ai pas l'intention de m'arreter, toutefois, aucun rapport avec la virulence de la campagne de destruction des Bush Haters, je ne hais pas Obama, des lors.

Ah pour le moment, Obama n'a toujours pas commente.