Nouvelles en Langue Anglaise

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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

AP
The Kansas clinic where abortion doctor George Tiller worked before he was shot to death at church will be permanently shuttered, his attorney says.

FOX News

Gingrich Tells GOP Obama Has 'Already Failed'

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Obama's plan to fix the economy through stimulus spending and government intervention for companies like General Motors has "already failed."



FOXNews.com

Monday, June 08, 2009


WASHINGTON -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday urged some 2,000 Republican loyalists to stand up for the party's principles but to be inclusive as the party tries to retake the majority.

"I am happy that Dick Cheney is a Republican," Gingrich said at the annual Senate-House fundraising dinner. "I am also happy that Colin Powell is a Republican."

Cheney, the former vice president under President George W. Bush, and Powell, who was Bush's secretary of state, have feuded recently over the approach of the party, with Powell calling for more moderation and Cheney arguing against that.

"A majority Republican party will have lots of debates within the party," Gingrich, the former Georgia congressman, said. "That is the nature of majority parties."

Gingrich also said President Obama's plan to fix the economy through stimulus spending and government intervention to boost companies like General Motors has "already failed."

"Bureaucrats managing companies does not work, politicians dominating the economy does not work," Bloomberg reported Gingrich as saying.

...

Researchers Debate 'Obama Effect' on Black Students' Test Scores

A recent study found that African-Americans scored higher on standardized tests if they were reminded of President Obama's accomplishments before the test -- narrowing the achievement gap between black and white test takers and suggesting a tangible effect of Obama's presidency.



FOXNews.com

Tuesday, June 09, 2009


Five months into Barack Obama's presidency, two researchers are at odds over whether a so-called "Obama effect" can bump up black students' standardized test scores and help to close the achievement gap between blacks and whites.

In the days after Obama's election in November, school officials across the country reported a noticeable improvement in students' performance -- particularly in black communities -- and attributed it to Obama's success.

But two studies have produced conflicting reports on the existence of such an effect -- calling into question whether inspiration alone is enough to bring quantifiable change.

In a study conducted during the 2008 election, Dr. Ray Friedman of Vanderbilt University found that black students achieved higher scores on standardized tests when they were reminded of Obama's achievements before the test. Their higher scores narrowed the gap between black and higher-scoring white students, suggesting a tangible effect of Obama's presidency.

Friedman said the students who earned higher scores likely overcame "stereotype threat" -- a fear that one's performance will confirm an existing negative stereotype of a group with which one identifies, resulting in psychological discomfort.

Friedman has claimed that blacks are far more likely to score below their potential when asked to identify their race on a test -- or when they are told an exam will measure innate abilities, like intelligence.

But when role models from the same social group are present before a test is administered, "it tends to take away stereotype threat losses" -- resulting in higher scores, according to Friedman.

"When Obama broke through the barrier in such a public and important way, it helped black test takers achieve their full potential," Friedman said of the study. "The question is -- will that effect persist?"

While Friedman said America's first black president's influence as a positive role model likely helped raise scores, "no one's claiming that Obama is going to make people who have never studied geometry suddenly pass geometry."

Friedman tested 400 subjects -- in separate groups of 100 -- at four different phases of the election cycle: before the Democratic convention; after Obama's acceptance speech on Aug. 28; midway between the speech and the presidential election; and after Obama's victory in November.
In the first test, the median score for whites was 12.14 of 20, while the median score for blacks was 8.79 of 20. After Obama won the presidency, whites scored 11.9 and blacks scored 9.83.

When Obama's political success was most apparent -- after his convention speech and after his Nov. 4 victory -- Friedman found that blacks' scores rose while whites' scores dropped slightly, statistically narrowing the gap.

But Friedman's findings have been challenged by another study that found no evidence of an "Obama Effect" on black students' standardized test scores.

Dr. Joshua Aronson of New York University, who conducted a study in June 2008 after Hillary Clinton conceded and Obama secured the nomination, found "absolutely no results" to support Friedman's findings.

...

Obama, une sorte de D.ieu selon Evan Thomas de Newsweek...

Ces media gauchistes anti-religieux et en manque de religion se creent un nouveau culte!

Newsweek Editor: Obama’s Sort of God

“In a way,” says Newsweek editor Evan Thomas, “Obama is standing above the country. Above … above the world …

“He’s sort of God.”

Yes, that’s what he said. See for yourself:

... pasteur que notre president n'a jamais entendu dire le moindre mot raciste ou antisemite, est interviewe: Ces Juifs ne laissent pas Obama me parler!

Rev. Wright Says 'Them Jews' Won't Let Obama Talk to Him

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright says he doesn't have any regrets over his severed relationship with President Obama.

In a racially charged interview, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that President Obama hasn't spoken to him since they parted ways last year, because "them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me."

He suggested White House advisers were keeping the two separate.

"Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office," Wright said, according to Virginia's Daily Press. "They will not let him ... talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is."

Obama left Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago last year following the very public controversy over his inflammatory sermons.

Wright sporadically has granted media interviews and made public appearances since. In the Daily Press article, he also claimed that the president did not send a delegation to the recent world racism conference in Geneva for fear of offending Jews.

"Ethnic cleansing is going on in Gaza. Ethnic cleansing of the Zionist is a sin and a crime against humanity, and they don't want Barack talking like that because that's anti-Israel," Wright said.

Wright said he voted for Obama in November and has no regrets over their severed relationship.

"Regret for what ... that the media went back five, seven, 10 years and spent $4,000 buying 20 years worth of sermons to hear what I've been preaching for 20 years?" he said.

Click here to read the full story.

David Letterman Slammed For Sex Jokes About Palin's Teen Daughter

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
By Allison McGevna



AP

David Letterman is under fire for crude jokes about Palin's teenage daughter.

David Letterman is in the hot seat for several crude jokes he made on CBS' "The Late Show" about Sarah Palin and her teenage daughter.

Letterman, in his monologue Tuesday night, noted that the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate attended a Yankees game during a trip to New York City, where she was honored by a special needs group. Letterman referred to Palin, Alaska's governor, as having the style of a "slutty flight attendant."

The "Late Show" host also took a shot Palin's daughter, while poking fun at the Yankees' third baseman.

"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game," Letterman said, "during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

The backlash was almost immediate, with Palin's supporters denouncing the CBS host for making jokes that many said were sexist and for what they called an unfair attack on the governor and her family.

"I think that calling the former vice presidential candidate a slut or saying that her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez, I think everyone can agree that’s over the line," Washington Examiner correspondent Byron York told FOX News’ Greta Von Susteren.

But an even more disturbing fact, which Letterman may not have known, was that the daughter who accompanied Palin on her trip to New York was 14-year-old Willow — not 18-year-old Bristol, the unwed mother of Palin's first grandchild.

Now, many critics — including the Palins themselves – are slamming Letterman for jokes that they say make light of sexual abuse of an underage girl.

In a statement to FOXNews.com, Palin accused Letterman of making "sexually perverted" and “inappropriate" comments that she doubted he would “ever dare make” about anyone else’s daughter.

"Acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others," she said.

Palin's husband, Todd, echoed her sentiments, telling FOXNews.com, "Any ‘jokes’ about raping my 14-year-old are despicable. Alaskans know it, and I believe the rest of the world knows it, too."

A representative for “The Late Show” declined to offer comment for this story.

Il serait surprenant que, ce david letterman perde sa place ne serait-ce que pour quelques semaines comme ce fut le cas pour plusieurs autres dont Imus (que je n'aime PAS DU TOUT d'ailleurs) apres tout, il ne fait qu'exprimer son opinion, n'est-ce-pas et puis ses cibles sont Republicaines, des lors...

Nebraska Doctor to Perform Third-Term Abortions in Kansas

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
]


AP

May 14: Physician George Tiller listens to testimony of former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline in Sedgwick County, Kan., District Court.

OMAHA, Neb. — A Nebraska doctor said Wednesday that he will perform third-term abortions in Kansas after the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller, but would not say whether he will open a new facility or offer the procedure at an existing practice.

Dr. LeRoy Carhart declined to discuss his plans in detail during a telephone interview with The Associated Press, but insisted "there will be a place in Kansas for the later second- and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon."

"I just think that until everything is in place, it's something that doesn't need to be talked about" in detail, Carhart said a day after Tiller's family announced his Wichita clinic was permanently shutting its doors.

Tiller's clinic was one of the only facilities in the country that performed third-trimester abortions. Carhart has run his own clinic in Bellevue, Neb., since 1985, but had performed late-term abortions at Tiller's clinic because of Nebraska's more restrictive abortion laws.

Nebraska law does not allow an abortion if the fetus is considered viable, or able to survive outside the womb. Kansas law allows abortions on viable fetuses after the 21st week if carrying the pregnancy to term would endanger the mother's life or cause a "substantial and irreversible impairment" of a major bodily function. Courts have interpreted a "major bodily function" to include mental health.

Carhart said he has not performed any abortion past the 22nd week of pregnancy at own clinic because he never trained his staff to do them.

"If I have to train the staff and if I have to do them, then that's certainly an option" for a fetus that would not survive outside the womb, he said. Carhart said some of the staff from Tiller's clinic may join him in Nebraska to help with training.

Carhart said he has already seen more patients at his Bellevue clinic since Tiller's was closed after he was shot May 31 while serving as an usher at his church. Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old Kansas City, Mo., resident, has been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault.

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman said his group, which tried for years to put Tiller's clinic out of business, has discussed the idea of buying the tan, windowless building in east Wichita.

"I would love to make an offer on that abortion clinic, and that's some of the discussion that we're having," Newman said Tuesday.

An attorney for Tiller wouldn't discuss the proposal. "I'm just not going to respond to every irreverent publicity stunt or comment by these extremists," attorney Dan Monnat said.

Tiller's clinic was the site of a 45-day "Summer of Mercy" protest in 1991 that included attempts to blockade it and led to more than 2,700 arrests. Operation Rescue was founded in the 1980s by Randall Terry, who led the "Summer of Mercy" effort. Terry stopped using the Operation Rescue name because of multiple lawsuits. He and Newman are engaged in a legal dispute over who has the right to use the name.

... une nouvelle qui ne devrait pas manquer de le remplir de bien-etre!

Exclusive: 'Pregnant Man' Gives Birth to Second Child

Thomas Beatie, the Transgender Man Born a Woman, Welcomes Baby Boy to FamilyBy ALAN B. GOLDBERG and KATIE N. THOMSON
June 9, 2009

Barbara Walters pictured with Thomas Beatie and his baby daughter Susan Juliette, in November 2008. The photo was taken when Beatie revealed in an exclusive interview with "20/20" that he was pregnant with his second child.

(ABC News)

C'est trop scientifique et pas assez croustillant pour Bertrand. Quoique...

Peut-être ... encore que moi cette Sarah, je l'inviterais bien à une de mes soirées SM (Saucisson Moules-frites)

Personne n'aura oublie la promesse de NE PAS REMETTRE les detenus a des pays pratiquant la torture contrairement au gouvernement Bush!

U.S. Nears Yemeni Guantanamo Detainee Deal

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Yemen may agree to allow a considerable portion of the nearly 100 Yemenis held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay to be transferred to Saudi Arabia, officials involved in the negotiations said. A deal could accelerate President Barack Obama's plan to close the detention facility at the U.S. military base in Cuba by January.

U.S. officials say the Yemenis, who make up nearly half of the roughly 240 detainees remaining at Guantanamo, are among the most difficult to resettle because of their numbers and, in some cases, alleged direct or familial ties to Al Qaeda.

Washington is wary of repatriating the men because it fears Yemen's government won't be able to keep sufficient tabs on them.

The U.S. has been combing the globe for nations willing to take detainees who are considered eligible for release. On Tuesday, the government of the Pacific island nation of Palau expressed its willingness to accept 17 Chinese Uighurs held at Guantanamo.

Senior White House and Central Intelligence Agency officials have been holding regular talks with the Yemeni and Saudi governments about sending a sizable number of the Yemeni detainees to rehabilitation centers in Saudi Arabia. Obama personally discussed the issue with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in a phone conversation last month, according to Yemeni and American officials.

Yemen's government has demanded that all Yemeni detainees be returned to their homeland. But a U.S. official working on the issue said there appeared to be a move toward compromise, adding, "What's crucial is how many the Saudis will take."

Sarah : " et pour la soirée SM de Bertrand, je peux venir habillée comme ceci ? "

Sylvette a écrit:

Personne n'aura oublie la promesse de NE PAS REMETTRE les detenus a des pays pratiquant la torture contrairement au gouvernement Bush!

Non, non, personne n'a oublié. Enfin, j'espère...

AU sujet du 852)
... The U.S. has been combing the globe for nations willing to take detainees who are considered eligible for release. On Tuesday, the government of the Pacific island nation of Palau expressed its willingness to accept 17 Chinese Uighurs held at Guantanamo.

:

Palau: China 'Wasn't Considered' on Detainees

Thursday, June 11, 2009

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Palau's president said Thursday his tiny Pacific island state considered human rights — and not China's reaction — when it agreed to take in 17 Chinese Muslim separatists detained at Guantanamo Bay.

The archipelago agreed to a U.S. request to resettle the detained members of China's Uighur minority out of humanitarian concerns and because it believed that their continued detention at the U.S. facility on Cuba was unlawful, Palau President Johnson Toribiong said in a telephone interview.

The Pentagon has determined that the detainees were not "enemy combatants." However, the Obama administration has faced fierce congressional opposition to allowing them on U.S. soil as free men and has sought alternatives abroad. Palau agreed Wednesday to temporarily resettle the detainees.*

China has demanded that the men be extradited to their homeland and pressured countries not to accept them.

...

N'oublions pas non plus que les deux chambres du Congres sont majoritairement Democrates! L'anti-Guantanamoisme pour "captiver" l'electorat se transforme rapidement (Sans doute, le vent du CHANGEment) lorsque la majorite du meme electorat est plus de 80% opposee a l'emprisonnement des detenus sur le territoire americain.

Vous avez dit Faux-Q? (tant chez les elus que chez, apparemment la majorite de ceux qui ont vote pour eux!)

et... evidemment, j'ai une petite pensee pour tous les anti-Bush et anti-Guantano europeens... Braves mais pas temeraires, a part Nicolas qui en a pris "1", tous les autres ont manque a l'appel. La encore, vous avez dit Faux-Q? Evidemment je comprends parfaitement ceux qui n'en veulent ayant toujours ete convaincus que ces detenus etaient dangereux, moi non plus je n'en voulais pas sur le territoire americain.

qui va faire fermer la chaine restante qui ne lui soit pas favorable.

Chávez Raising Pressure On Defiant TV Network

Curbs on Globovisión Draw Criticism
By Juan Forero

Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 11, 2009
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Looking smart in red pants and a summer blouse, television reporter Jeanelie Briceño arrived at the headquarters of President Hugo Chávez's United Socialist Party last week expecting to get in, just like every other journalist showing up for a scheduled news conference.

"You were not invited," said the man at the door, as big as a bouncer and dressed in the government's trademark red.

The man checked off the names of the networks permitted inside -- they were all either state-owned or private stations that have markedly toned down their critiques of the president. Briceño was the only person locked out. Her employer, Globovisión, is the sole vociferously anti-government network still broadcasting on Venezuela's public airwaves.

In recent weeks, officials in this country -- where the government controls a media apparatus devoted to glowing coverage of the president -- have appeared increasingly obsessed with the 24-hour, all-news station.


...

gouvernement Bush...

Ca ne semble pas etre le cas. Le porte-parole du gouvernement se refuse meme a dire si un detenu de Guantanamo reconnu innocent serait relache apres son proces sur le territoire americain.

Major Garrett (FOX News)

JUNE 12, 2009 EU, U.S. to File Suit Against China

By JOHN W. MILLER and MATTHEW DALTON

BRUSSELS -- The European Union and the U.S. will jointly file suit against China at the World Trade Organization this month in a bid to stop the Asian giant from hoarding key minerals and to set a precedent for other big producers of raw materials, people familiar with the issue said Thursday.
For more than two years, China has been using tariffs on exports to keep important industrial ingredients like zinc, tin and silicon for use at home. At the same time, Beijing has aggressively bought up large quantities of minerals from resource-rich African countries.

(comme precedemment mentionne ici.)

Western governments say the policy gives Chinese chemical firms, steelmakers and other producers an unfair advantage. EU and U.S. trade negotiators have prepared a list of 20 materials, mainly chemicals and metals, they believe are subject to illegal export restrictions, though it is unclear how many of these will be part of the WTO complaint, a European diplomat said.

One restriction that has provoked strong objections from the EU and the U.S. is an export duty on yellow phosphorous, the diplomat said. China imposes a 95% duty on the material, which is used to make numerous industrial chemicals, far above limits on such duties that China accepted when it joined the WTO, the diplomat said.

China also places quotas on the amount of certain raw materials that can be exported, another potential violation of WTO rules, the diplomat said.

...

- des photos de soldats ayant maltraite des prisonniers que The W.W.W. , Nancy et la gauche voulaient voir publiees dans la presse et que NP avaient finalement acceptees de garder secretes (les criminels en question ont ete juges).

- les attaques continues de certains dans les media liant O'Reilly au meurtre de dr. Tyller

World Reacts to Iran's Disputed Election
Saturday, June 13, 2009

VIENNA — The U.S. and Canada challenged Iran's claims that hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election, but much of the rest of the world remained silent Saturday despite claims of fraud and scenes of clashes on the streets of Tehran.

For the Middle East and West alike, the stakes were high.

Iran is a key economic player in the region, a perceived threat to Israel's national security — and a major worry for the U.S. and allies who fear Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Supporters of pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi alleged that the outcome was rigged and clashes erupted in Tehran and at least one other city after Ahmadinejad's government declared him the victor in a landslide. The U.S. refused to accept Ahmadinejad's claim of a landslide and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she hoped the outcome reflected the "genuine will and desire" of Iranian voters.

"We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran, but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide," Clinton told reporters during a visit to Canada.

...

Obama Hovers From on High

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, June 12, 2009

"And the Spirit of God hovered upon the face of the waters"

-- Genesis 1:2

When President Obama returned from his first European trip, I observed that while over there he had been "acting the philosopher-king who hovers above the fray mediating" between America and the world. Now that Obama has returned from his "Muslim world" pilgrimage, even the left agrees. "Obama's standing above the country, above -- above the world. He's sort of God," Newsweek's Evan Thomas said to a concurring Chris Matthews, reflecting on Obama's lofty perception of himself as the great transcender.

Not that Obama considers himself divine. (He sees himself as merely messianic, or, at worst, apostolic.) But he does position himself as hovering above mere mortals, mere country, to gaze benignly upon the darkling plain beneath him where ignorant armies clash by night, blind to the common humanity that only he can see. Traveling the world, he brings the gospel of understanding and godly forbearance. We have all sinned against each other. We must now look beyond that and walk together to the sunny uplands of comity and understanding.

He shall guide you. Thus:
(A) He told Iran that, on the one hand, America once helped overthrow an Iranian government, while on the other hand "Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians." (Played a role?!) We have both sinned; let us bury the past and begin anew.

(B) On religious tolerance, he gently referenced the Christians of Lebanon and Egypt, then lamented that the "divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence" (note the use of the passive voice). He then criticized (in the active voice) Western religious intolerance for regulating the wearing of the hijab -- after citing America for making it difficult for Muslims to give to charity.

(C) Obama offered Muslims a careful admonition about women's rights, noting how denying women education impoverishes a country -- balanced, of course, with this: "Issues of women's equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam." Example? "The struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life."

Well, yes. On the one hand, there certainly is some American university where the women's softball team has received insufficient Title IX funds -- while, on the other hand, Saudi women showing ankle are beaten in the street, Afghan school girls have acid thrown in their faces, and Iranian women are publicly stoned to death for adultery. (Gays, as well -- but then again we have Prop 8.) We all have our shortcomings, our national foibles. Who's to judge?

That's the problem with Obama's transcultural evenhandedness. It gives the veneer of professorial sophistication to the most simple-minded observation: Of course there are rights and wrongs in all human affairs. Our species is a fallen one. But that doesn't mean that these rights and wrongs are of equal weight.

A CIA rent-a-mob in a coup 56 years ago does not balance the hostage-takings, throat-slittings, terror bombings and wanton slaughters perpetrated for 30 years by a thug regime in Tehran (and its surrogates) that our own State Department calls the world's "most active state sponsor of terrorism."

True, France prohibits the wearing of the hijab in certain public places, in part to allow the force of law to protect Muslim women who might be coerced into wearing it by neighborhood fundamentalist gangs. But it borders on the obscene to compare this mild preference for secularization (seen in Muslim Turkey as well) to the violence that has been visited upon Copts, Maronites, Bahais, Druze and other minorities in Muslim lands, and to the unspeakable cruelties perpetrated by Shiites and Sunnis upon each other.

Even on freedom of religion, Obama could not resist the compulsion to find fault with his own country: "For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation" -- disgracefully giving the impression to a foreign audience not versed in our laws that there is active discrimination against Muslims, when the only restriction, applied to all donors regardless of religion, is on funding charities that serve as fronts for terror.

For all of his philosophy, the philosopher-king protests too much. Obama undoubtedly thinks he is demonstrating historical magnanimity with all these moral equivalencies and self-flagellating apologetics. On the contrary. He's showing cheap condescension, an unseemly hunger for applause and a willingness to distort history for political effect.

Distorting history is not truth-telling but the telling of soft lies. Creating false equivalencies is not moral leadership but moral abdication. And hovering above it all, above country and history, is a sign not of transcendence but of a disturbing ambivalence toward one's own country.

Obama in Bush Clothing
By Charles Krauthammer

Friday, May 22, 2009

"We were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning."

-- Unnamed and dismayed human rights advocate, on legalizing indefinite detention of alleged terrorists,

the New York Times, May 21


If hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue, then the flip-flops on previously denounced anti-terror measures are the homage that Barack Obama pays to George Bush. Within 125 days, Obama has adopted with only minor modifications huge swaths of the entire, allegedly lawless Bush program.

The latest flip-flop is the restoration of military tribunals. During the 2008 campaign, Obama denounced them repeatedly, calling them an "enormous failure." Obama suspended them upon his swearing-in. Now they're back.


Of course, Obama will never admit in word what he's doing in deed. As in his rhetorically brilliant national-security speech yesterday claiming to have undone Bush's moral travesties, the military commissions flip-flop is accompanied by the usual Obama three-step: (a) excoriate the Bush policy, (b) ostentatiously unveil cosmetic changes, (c) adopt the Bush policy.


Cosmetic changes such as Obama's declaration that "we will give detainees greater latitude in selecting their own counsel." Laughable. High-toned liberal law firms are climbing over each other for the frisson of representing these miscreants in court.

What about disallowing evidence received under coercive interrogation? Hardly new, notes former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy. Under the existing rules, military judges have that authority, and they exercised it under the Bush administration to dismiss charges against al-Qaeda operative Mohammed al-Qahtani on precisely those grounds.


On Guantanamo, it's Obama's fellow Democrats who have suddenly discovered the wisdom of Bush's choice. In open rebellion against Obama's pledge to shut it down, the Senate voted 90 to 6 to reject appropriating a single penny until the president explains where he intends to put the inmates. Sen. James Webb, the de facto Democratic authority on national defense, wants the closing to be put on hold. And on Tuesday, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, no Gitmo inmates on American soil -- not even in American jails.


That doesn't leave a lot of places. The home countries won't take them. Europe is recalcitrant. Saint Helena needs refurbishing. Elba didn't work out too well the first time. And Devil's Island is now a tourist destination. Gitmo is starting to look good again.

Observers of all political stripes are stunned by how much of the Bush national security agenda is being adopted by this new Democratic government. Victor Davis Hanson (National Review) offers a partial list: "The Patriot Act, wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, military tribunals, Predator drone attacks, Iraq (i.e., slowing the withdrawal), Afghanistan (i.e., the surge) -- and now Guantanamo."

Jack Goldsmith (The New Republic) adds: rendition -- turning over terrorists seized abroad to foreign countries; state secrets -- claiming them in court to quash legal proceedings on rendition and other erstwhile barbarisms; and the denial of habeas corpus -- to detainees in Afghanistan's Bagram prison, indistinguishable logically and morally from Guantanamo.
What does it all mean? Democratic hypocrisy and demagoguery? Sure, but in Washington, opportunism and cynicism are hardly news.

There is something much larger at play -- an undeniable, irresistible national interest that, in the end, beyond the cheap politics, asserts itself. The urgencies and necessities of the actual post-9/11 world, as opposed to the fanciful world of the opposition politician, present a rather narrow range of acceptable alternatives.

Among them: reviving the tradition of military tribunals, used historically by George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Winfield Scott, Abraham Lincoln, Arthur MacArthur and Franklin Roosevelt. And inventing Guantanamo -- accessible, secure, offshore and nicely symbolic (the tradition of island exile for those outside the pale of civilization is a venerable one) -- a quite brilliant choice for the placement of terrorists, some of whom, the Bush administration immediately understood, would have to be detained without trial in a war that could be endless.

The genius of democracy is that the rotation of power forces the opposition to come to its senses when it takes over. When the new guys, brought to power by popular will, then adopt the policies of the old guys, a national consensus is forged and a new legitimacy established.

That's happening before our eyes. The Bush policies in the war on terror won't have to await vindication by historians. Obama is doing it day by day. His denials mean nothing. Look at his deeds.

Bravo Sylvette, on a pensé que votre nouveau président serait un Grand Sorcier, mais finalement il est un grand humoriste.
Notez que ce n'est peut-être pas plus mal....