Free Republic

Now we know one reason why Obama bowed to the Saudi monarch. The Saudi Kingdom gave the Obama team suitcases of jewels during their infamous Apology Tour.

ROME — Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities. According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that...

So far as I can tell the only Bloomberg among all US MSM have published any news reports on the $135 billion of US bearer bonds being smuggled by two Japanese businessmen from Italy into Switzerland. This story has raised many interesting and important questions, to which there have been no answers yet. But there is another interesting and important question I haven't seen discussed. Why, when major European and Japanese media have reported it, have none of the US MSM done so? I can think of only two reasons: 1) the story is now known to be only an...

MIDEAST: TARIQ RAMADAN, 'MUSLIMS WANT RESPECT AND HUMIILITY' (ANSAmed) - ROME, JUNE 3 - According to the controversial Swiss intellectual and Islam scholar, Tariq Ramadan, a "change in attitude" and "effective and necessary action", a "real and profound message of respect" but above all "humility" are what the Muslim world expects in the keynote speech that USA President Barack Obama will be making tomorrow in Cairo. In a statement sent to the press via email, Ramadan underlines how Obama has found himself having to "reverse the legacy" left by George W. Bush and his administration, who did not show "respect...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Saudi Arabia on June 3 for talks on Iran's nuclear program and Washington's renewed push for a Middle East peace plan, the White House said on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, is a staunch U.S. ally in the region and has been a key player in the drive for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which Obama has declared a top foreign policy priority. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama would meet Saudi King Abdullah and would also discuss terrorism. The visit comes at a time when...