United States News Digest

Obama Foreign Policy Blunders Anger State Department, Pentagon

Aug. 29 (EIRNS)—Sources close to the Obama Administration have confirmed widespread anger and frustration at President Obama's latest diplomatic blunders, on the part of top State Department and Pentagon officials. On the eve of the Sept. 1 White House Middle East peace negotiations, according to one source, "President Obama has, for all intents and purposes, allowed Bibi [Netanyahu] to set the agenda." They cited the President's decision, made behind the backs of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Middle East envoy George Mitchell, to invite former Prime Minister Tony Blair to attend the opening ceremonies, as the latest indication that Obama is not even coordinating with his own Cabinet team. The source indicated that there has been a dramatic shift in agenda of the entire negotiations.

Obama similarly blindsided top foreign policy aides by bringing UN Ambassador Susan Rice into a top-level Administration review session on Sudan, another source reported. And, while Clinton reportedly strongly backed Sudan envoy Gen. Scott Gration (ret.), and the two prevailed over Rice's hatred of Sudan, Obama created a senseless diplomatic row on Aug. 27, when he denounced the Kenyan government for failing to arrest Sudanese President Bashir, when he attended a celebration in Nairobi for the signing of a new Kenyan Constitution. The Kenyan government hit back hard against Obama, reminding him that the African Union does not consider that the International Criminal Court has made its case against the Sudanese leader, and the U.S. well knows that.

Lyndon LaRouche commented on Aug. 28 that Obama is acting, first and foremost, on behalf of the British and their continued Sykes-Picot policy of permanent conflict in Southwest Asia. He nailed Blair as an agent of the secret government of Britain, run through the British monarchy. "Blair is nothing but a stooge for the royal family," LaRouche noted. He added that "Obama is behaving like Hitler in the bunker, just as I have warned. He is cut off from all rational influences in his own government. The government no longer has control over President Obama, and he is behaving more and more like a manipulative tyrant."

White House Reactivates WWF Imperial Scheme for Bering Strait Nature Preserve

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—In 2009, the Obama Administration reactivated a 20-year dormant project, spawned by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to impose an international nature preserve on the Bering Strait, to deter any infrastructure development on this key link in the world land-bridge. Moves are continuing this Summer, towards a "Beringian Heritage" lock-up of land and resources, and impoverishment of local people, to directly serve the geopolitical interests of London finance behind the environmentalist game. The area under discussion involves millions of hectares of coastal Alaska and Chukotka, on the Chukchi and Bering seas.

This locale is exactly the region through which the development corridors will go, of the proposed Bering Strait Tunnel, linking Asia and the Americas, in conjunction with the North American Water and Power Alliance program (NAWAPA).

The Obama push for this WWF anti-development program comes under the auspices of the new U.S.-Russia Presidential Commission, established in July 2009, by Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Its goals featured the task of advancing "efforts to protect our shared heritage and environment in the Bering Strait region," as the Commission states. This jargon harks back, word for word, to the 1990s World Wildlife Fund propaganda for "Arctic preserves." In June 2010, Russian and U.S. interagency subgroups, including the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), the EPA, Agency for International Development and others, met on this, with the aim of bringing about what the NPS describes as the "reintroduction of a proposal to establish an international protected area" to preserve bears, fish, flora, fauna and quaint "cultural subsistence practices" by native peoples.

Locking up land in the Arctic is a major focus of the WWF international nature preserve drive. The WWF is one of only two NGOs with official observer status in the Arctic Council, which consists of all the nations of the Far North: Canada, United States, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The WWF is especially causing trouble in Russia, claiming credit for creating new nature preserves there, adding up to an area the size of between Switzerland and Norway.

Rangel: Obama Hasn't Been Around Long Enough To Know What 'My Dignity' Is

Aug. 24 (EIRNS)—Speaking at a candidates forum last night, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who is currently the target of a racist witchhunt for phony "ethics" violations, responded to President Obama's statement on July 31, on CBS TV, "He is somebody who is at the end of his career, 80 years old. I'm sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity, and my hope is that happens." The remark was widely interpreted as a call for Rangel to resign.

Rangel shot back: "Frankly, he hasn't been around long enough to determine what my dignity is." Then he added: "For the next two years, I will be more likely to protect his dignity."

When Rangel asked the audience if they thought he should resign, the crowd interrupted with a thundering "NO!" Then, in another reference to his age, Rangel said, "If it's okay with my doctor, I'm going to serve the next two years."

As he left, the crowd swarmed around him, as he defiantly marched down the center aisle, shaking hands and offering kisses to the women.

Florida Cops Raid Homeless Camps: 'Do It to Them, Not to Me'

Aug. 23 (EIRNS)—A police action in Florida vividly illustrates the national pattern of war against the homeless.

In Port Charlotte, sheriff's deputies drove 50-60 homeless people out of five encampments. The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office announced that 20 jail inmates filled trash containers with 25,000 pounds of "discarded items and trash" after deputies "cleared the people out of the woods."

The raids began Aug. 21, and 15 more camps are targeted.

Charlotte County, on the Gulf of Mexico, is economically devastated.

Angela Hogan, from the local Coalition for the Homeless, told EIR that laid-off workers and retirees, having lost their homes to foreclosure, sometimes moved in with their parents, and their parents were then foreclosed on. She said the Coalition's homeless shelter has had two-thirds more cases this year than last.

Hogan said that homeless advocates won a fight with the County Commissioners earlier this year, defeating a proposed ordinance that would have allowed the sheriff to drive homeless campers off private property without the sheriff having to get the permission of the landowner.

But the county leadership proceeded with the raids anyway, under a trespassing ordinance.

Suicide in the Military: It's the War, Stupid

Aug. 24 (EIRNS)—After eight years of protracted warfare, a Department of Defense task force finally declared what veterans and military health advocates have been saying for years: The stress of repeated deployments has played a major role in the rising rate of suicide in the military. The Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces, co-chaired by Maj. Gen. Philip Volpe, commander of the Army's Western Regional Medical Command, and Bonnie Carroll, the director of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, released its report today, one year after beginning work.

The executive summary of the report states: "The years since 2002 have placed unprecedented demands on our Armed Forces and military families. Military operational requirements have risen significantly, and manning levels across the services remain too low to meet the ever-increasing demand. This current imbalance places strain not only on those deploying, but equally on those who remain in garrison." The task force concluded that "the cumulative effects of all these factors are contributing significantly to the increase in the incidence of suicide and without effective action will persist well beyond the duration of the current operations and deployments." The task force also found "that multiple deployments and long deployments have taken a toll on the force and its families, eroding the well-being (fitness) and resilience of the force."

The report includes 76 recommendations concerning military leadership, wellness, and training, delivery of care, and investigations and research, with the intent of developing a comprehensive suicide-prevention policy within the Department of Defense.