Special news Obama thanks special forces for daring bin Laden raid

Watches Obama thanks special forces for daring bin Laden raid


FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — President Obama on Friday privately thanked some of the special military operators who killed Osama bin Laden. "Job well done," he said of their daring raid.

In a series of closed-door meetings, Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden met with some of the special-operations forces who went on Monday's raid in Pakistan and with members of the broader assault force that supported the mission.

"I came here for a simple reason: to say thank you on behalf of America," Obama told soldiers at Fort Campbell, the home of the 101st Airborne Division, after his private meetings.

"Thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals, intelligence, military, over many years, the terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again," he said.

The president said he had visited New York the day before to pay homage to the victims of bin Laden's 2001 terrorist attacks, as well as to the firefighters and police who responded to the catastrophe.

"I promised that our nation will never forget those we lost that dark September day," he told about 2,000 troops in a steamy hangar. "And today, here at Fort Campbell, I had the privilege of meeting the extraordinary special-ops folks who honored that promise," he said. "It was a chance for me to say, on behalf of all Americans and people around the world, job well done. Job well done."

The commandos — Army helicopter pilots and Navy SEALs — briefed Obama about the raid, administration aides said, and he gave each of the groups the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor he can give a military unit.

The extraordinary sessions were kept private to protect the identities of those involved.

Obama also met Cairo, a dog used to help alert the special-operations teams to hidden threats. Cairo is the only member of the raid team to be identified
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Watches Michelle Obama tops powerful women list

Michelle Obama tops powerful women list


NEW YORK - US first lady Michelle Obama beat out heads of state, chief executives and celebrities to rank as the world’s most powerful woman in Forbes magazine’s annual listing on Wednesday.
Kraft Foods Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld, who led a hostile $18 billion takeover of Britain’s Cadbury, came in second, followed by talk show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who is ending “The Oprah Winfrey Show” next year after 25 years to launch her cable network OWN.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, elected for a second term last year, was the fourth most powerful woman, while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was put in charge of brokering Middle East peace, rounded out the top five.

Moira Forbes, vice president and publisher of ForbesWoman, said the women on the business magazine’s list were “shaping many of the agenda-setting conversations of the day.”

“They have built companies and brands, sometimes by non-traditional means and they have broken through gender barriers in areas of commerce, politics, sports and media and cultural zeitgeist, and thereby affecting the lives of millions, sometimes billions of people,” she said.

This year Forbes changed the way it ranked women, basing the list less on wealth and power and more on creative influence and entrepreneurship.

Last year’s winner was Merkel, followed by Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Obama ranked No. 40.

Forbes said Obama topped the list this year because “she has made the office of first lady her own” while remaining popular.

“In a telling sign of her charisma, the White House is putting her on the campaign trail to headline fundraising events in battleground states like California and Colorado,” Forbes said.

“She’s also effective: In response to her Let’s Move! campaign against childhood obesity, companies like Coca-Cola, Kellogg and General Mills have pledged to reduce the calorie content of their foods by 2015,” it said.

PepsiCo Inc Chief Executive Indra Nooyi, who was last week named the most powerful woman in US business for the fifth year in a row by Fortune, was in sixth place, while singer Lady Gaga came in at No. 7.

Gail Kelly, chief executive of Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp, was in eighth place, followed by singer Beyonce Knowles. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres rounded out the top 10
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Pete Souza Jefferson, Obama and Four Mosques

watches this enjoy Pete Souza Jefferson, Obama and Four Mosques

Article by WorldNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling.
"Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle." -Thomas Jefferson, March 4, 1801 Inaugural Address

Seeing that some political leaders and citizens are extremely upset over President Barack Obama's assertion of having no regrets about vocally supporting an Islamic mosque near Ground Zero in New York, it is very important to recall what Thomas Jefferson said at his inaugural address, and how he differentiated between principles and opinions concerning the future of America.

The newly formed republic had just experienced a divisive and bitter presidential race in which religion had become a (if not the) major issue. Many religious fundamentalists and evangelical Christians were allied with the Federalist Party. They believed Jefferson was a "howling atheist" and thus, presented the election as a stark choice between "God and a Religious President" and "Jefferson and No God."(1)

Two Federalists, Rev. John Mason of New York and Yale President Timothy Dwight, fanned the flames of fear by accusing Jefferson of denying the Biblical account of the universal deluge, for implicitly denying that the Jews are God's chosen people, and for wanting to re-enact the bloody French Revolution on American soil and then wanting to establish the Illuminate as rulers.(2)

While evangelical Federalists predicted Jefferson would overthrow the government and human society civil and domestic, religious fundamentalists warned he would place an apocalyptic and cataclysmic "seal of death" on their holy and Christian faith. They also alleged Jefferson's presidency and administration would result in the installation of "some infamous prostitute, under the title of the Goddess of Reason."(3)

When Jefferson uttered his famous phrase that there would be difference of opinion but not difference of principle, he was urging Americans that though there must be reasonable debate, certain principles must always be protected. The "sacred principles" he mentioned were the will of the prevailing majority and equal law protecting minority rights. Jefferson also stated in order for social harmony and liberty to exist, despotic political and religious intolerance must remain banished from the land.(4)

To say the least, and at the neglect of America's "rules of the Constitution"(5), Obama has been under fire for affirming a mosque has the same right to be built near Ground Zero as a church, synagogue, temple, or any other house of prayer and worship. Even though he recognizes this vital principle, some Democratic leaders seem to have forgotten the merit of religious liberties and toleration, even demanding an investigation into who is funding the mosque or calling it a "real affront."

These Democrats are not alone as Republicans, like New York Governor David Paterson, have requested developers to reconsider building a mosque near Ground Zero. Others, such as presidential hopefuls Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, have strongly voiced their oppositional opinions to the mosque. The Minority Leader in the House, John Boehner, called Obama's position "deeply troubling." Minority Whip Eric Cantor said building a mosque near Ground Zero was "the height of insensitivity."

It is unfortunate that opinions, views and judgments individuals formulate and make about an issue, and which are based on personal beliefs, have usurped basic America principles. It is also sad that reasonable and universal principles-on which rules, laws and rights are derived-are trying to be reversed. According to Jefferson, commonly held principles of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and toleration of religion, would prevent what he called "bloody persecution."(6)

Years after the 1800 election, and other than latching onto an existing divisive party that was trying to create hysteria by smearing its opponent, evangelical Federalists understood they could better influence society and exercise an independent moral voice by locally and regionally providing avenues and opportunities for equality and happiness. They also dealt with the real issues that threatened America: slavery, alcoholism, homelessness, violence, and nativism. Some also worked on behalf of rights for children and women.

Rev. Dwight, one of the most fierce evangelical Federalists and who is mentioned above, wrote, "Our countrymen have spent a sufficient time in hostilities against each other. We have entertained as many unkind thoughts, uttered as many bitter speeches, called each other by as many hard names, and indulged as much unkindness and malignity; as might satisfy our worst enemies..."(7)

Furthermore, "From all these efforts of ill-will we have not derived the least advantage. Friends and brothers have ceased to be friends and brothers; and professing Christians have dishonored the religion which they profess."(8) Like other Federalists who had once sought to divide America for political gain and power, Rev. Dwight understood that rights and liberties were based on principles, not selfish opinions, and they must be maintained.

The principle of religious toleration and freedom should not only be applied to the mosque in New York, the Cordoba House, but it must apply also to other mosques. Ron Scherer has written an article in the Christian Science Monitor about how other Islamic mosques are in danger. In Kentucky, Tennessee and California, "Stop the Mosque" campaigns, zoning laws and protests are preventing U.S. citizens from worshipping freely.

Jefferson also said, "Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind."(8) He believed the principles of unity, equal rights, honesty, temperance, a benign religion-professed indeed, and practiced in various forms, a Government that would restrain men from injuring one another, and, of course, love of man, would make a happy and a prosperous people, and his greater happiness hereafter.(9)

By defending the principles of religious toleration and the right to worship on private land-while acknowledging the diverse opinions about the mosque being built two blocks from Ground Zero-Obama, is, and in the words of Jefferson, allowing personal views against religious rights to stand as "monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."(10) If built, the mosques themselves will be monuments of American freedom.
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we are know this Israel gives Obama reason to worry

enjoy Israel gives Obama reason to worry
WASHINGTON - Pro-Israeli journalist Jeffrey Goldberg's article in The Atlantic magazine [1] was evidently aimed at showing why the Barack Obama administration should worry that it risks an attack by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran in the coming months unless Washington takes a much more menacing line toward Iran's nuclear program.

But the article provides new evidence that senior figures in the Israeli intelligence and military leadership oppose such a strike against Iran and believe that Netanyahu's apocalyptic rhetoric about Iran as an "existential threat" is unnecessary and self-defeating.

Although not reported by Goldberg, Israeli military and intelligence figures began to express their opposition to such rhetoric on Iran

in the early 1990s, and Netanyahu acted to end such talk when he became prime minister in 1996.

The Goldberg article also reveals extreme Israeli sensitivity to any move by Obama to publicly demand that Israel desist from such a strike, reflecting the reality that the Israeli government could not go ahead with any strike without being assured of US direct involvement in the war with Iran.

Goldberg argues that a likely scenario some months in the future is that Israeli officials will call their US counterparts to inform them that Israeli planes are already on their way to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.

The Israelis would explain that they had "no choice", he writes, because "a nuclear Iran poses the gravest threat since [Adolf] Hitler to the physical survival of the Jewish people".

He claims the "consensus" among present and past Israeli leaders is that the chances are better than 50/50 that Israel "will launch a strike by next July", based on interviews with 40 such Israeli decision-makers.

Goldberg is best known for hewing to the neo-conservative line in his reporting on Iraq, particularly in his insistence that that Saddam Hussein had extensive ties with al-Qaeda.

Goldberg quotes an Israeli official familiar with Netanyahu's thinking as saying, "In World War II, the Jews had no power to stop Hitler from annihilating us. Six million were slaughtered. Today, six million Jews live in Israel, and someone is threatening them with annihilation."

In his interview with Goldberg for this article, however, Netanyahu does not argue that Iran might use nuclear weapons against Israel. Instead, he argues that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza would be able to "fire rockets and engage in other terror activities while enjoying a nuclear umbrella".

But Israel relies on conventional forces - not nuclear deterrence - against Hezbollah and Hamas, making that argument entirely specious.
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We saw this First Guantanamo trial under Obama begins

Canadian defendant Omar Khadr sits with his defense team as FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller testifies during a pre-trial hearing at the Camp Justice compound on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, April 29, 2010.
now watches this First Guantanamo trial under Obama begins
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Thirteen hundred miles from Washington, on a sun-drenched corner of this iguana-dotted island, the U.S. military is gearing up for the trial of the youngest and last Western detainee at Guantanamo Bay.

The trial of Omar Khadr, 23, opened here Monday. Khadr was detained in Afghanistan in 2002, and is accused of murdering a U.S. soldier, conspiracy, spying and other charges.

The son of an Egyptian who became a Canadian citizen, Khadr moved between homes in Canada, Pakistan and Afghanistan for years. Other Western countries have secured the release of their citizens from Guantanamo, but successive Canadian governments have refused to even ask for Khadr’s return.

A successful trial and conviction for Khadr would mark a significant success for U.S. efforts to move beyond the legal limbo that has plagued Guantanamo for years. But Khadr was 15 when he was detained and human rights advocates criticize the administration for starting the tribunals with a case against a child soldier.

Khadr’s trial is the first military commission to take place under the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. Nearly 800 prisoners have passed through the facility since the United States began using it as a detention center in 2002. Six have been charged and three have been convicted.
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Enjoy Obama supports 'the right' for ground zero mosque

Watches this Obama supports 'the right' for ground zero mosque

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – Weighing his words carefully on a fiery political issue, President Barack Obama said Saturday that Muslims have the right to build a mosque near New York's ground zero, but he did not say whether he believes it is a good idea to do so.
Obama commented during a trip to Florida, where he expanded on a Friday night White House speech asserting that Muslims have the same right to freedom of religion as everyone else in America.
The president's statements thrust him squarely into a debate that he had skirted for weeks and could put Democrats on the spot three months before midterm elections where they already were nervous about holding control of the House and maybe even the Senate. Until Friday, the White House had asserted that it did not want to get involved in local decision-making.
The White House quickly followed up on Obama's latest comments on the matter, with Obama spokesman Bill Burton saying that the president wasn't backing off in any way from the remarks he made Friday.
"What he said last night, and reaffirmed today, is that if a church, a synagogue or a Hindu temple can be built on a site, you simply cannot deny that right to those who want to build a mosque," Burton said.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has been a strong supporter of the mosque, welcomed Obama's White House speech as a "clarion defense of the freedom of religion."
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was among those who met with Obama on Saturday, lauded the president's position. Crist is running for the U.S. Senate as an independent.
"I think he's right — I mean you know we're a country that in my view stands for freedom of religion and respect for others," Crist said after the Florida meeting with Obama and other officials. "I know there are sensitivities and I understand them. This is a place where you're supposed to be able to practice your religion without the government telling you you can't."
Others were quick to pounce on Obama's statements.

In a statement Saturday, House Minority Leader John Boehner said the decision to build the mosque wasn't an issue of religious freedom, but a matter of respect.
"The fact that someone has the right to do something doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do," Boehner said. "That is the essence of tolerance, peace and understanding."
Added Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.: "President Obama is wrong. It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero."
Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene of Florida took Obama's Friday speech to mean the president supports the construction.
"President Obama has this all wrong and I strongly oppose his support for building a mosque near ground zero especially since Islamic terrorists have bragged and celebrated destroying the Twin Towers and killing nearly 3,000 Americans," said Greene. "Freedom of religion might provide the right to build the mosque in the shadow of ground zero, but common sense and respect for those who lost their lives and loved ones gives sensible reason to build the mosque someplace else."
The mosque would be part of a $100 million Islamic community center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
The proposed construction has sparked debate around the country that has included opposition from top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich as well as the Jewish civil rights group the Anti-Defamation League.
Obama's Friday comment was taken by some to mean that he strongly supports the building of an Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, something he never said.
Speaking to a gathering at the White House Friday evening to observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Obama said that he believes "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country."
"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."
Asked Saturday about the issue during his trip to Florida, Obama said: "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding."
Obama said that "my intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion."
Some relatives of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks supported Obama's comments.
The mosque is "in many ways ... a fitting tribute," said Colleen Kelly of the Bronx, who lost her brother Bill Kelly Jr. in the attacks.
"This is the voice of Islam that I believe needs a wider audience," said Kelly, who is Catholic. "This is what moderate Islam is all about."

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