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It has now been nine years since al Qaeda attacked the United States. It has been nine years in which the primary focus of the United States has been on the Islamic world. In addition to a massive investment in homeland security, the United States has engaged in two multi-year, multi-divisional wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, inserted forces in other countries in smaller operations and conducted a global covert campaign against al Qaeda and other radical jihadist groups. In order to understand the last nine years you must understand the first 24 hours of the war Read more: 9/11 and...

Japan wants the fighters US refused to sell Canberra Peter Alford Tokyo correspondent April 23, 2007 THE Japanese Government wants Washington to overturn an export ban on the F-22A Raptor so the most advanced stealth fighter aircraft in service can be considered for Tokyo's next-generation military aircraft procurement. The US refused to consider selling the F-22 to Australia, its other closest Pacific ally, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to raise the matter when he meets George W.Bush in the White House on Friday. Japan's Defence Minister, Fumio Kyuma, will ask his opposite number, Robert Gates, for access to...

WASHINGTON — More than two months after suffering a brain hemorrhage, South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson has left a Washington hospital and entered a private rehabilitation facility, his office said Tuesday. A spokeswoman refused to say whether the senator remained in Washington or was moved to a facility in South Dakota, citing family concerns about media scrutiny. "They just want him to focus on getting better and not worried about outside cameras snapping away," said spokeswoman Julianne Fisher.

A new drone designed to identify, intercept and destroy ballistic missiles as they are launched from the ground will soon make its debut. The drone, designed and produced by the Israel Aircraft Industries, is the largest unmanned aircraft in the world. It is a huge aircraft, almost the same size as a Boeing 737 passenger airliner with a wing span of 110 feet (35 meters), said a security official quoted in the daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot. The aircraft is designed to fly at high altitudes and is equipped with cameras which identify the missiles as they are launched. It is...

Johnson spent his 60th birthday last week in the intensive-care unit of George Washington University Hospital, where he has been in critical condition since emergency brain surgery Dec. 13. He has not spoken since the surgery, said a spokeswoman, and he remains on a ventilator at night. Johnson is up for re-election in two years, but until then no authority can remove him from office. Should Johnson die, however, all eyes would be on Gov. Michael Rounds of South Dakota. He is a Republican, and would be under pressure to name a Republican to the Senate seat - thus giving...

Masked intruders forced their way into the Silver Spring home of a U.S. senator's daughter yesterday morning, startling a nanny who ran outside with the lawmaker's 2-year-old granddaughter and left his youngest grandson behind. A Montgomery County police SWAT team later found the baby safe in his crib. Police think the incident was a burglary gone awry because the intruders apparently didn't realize the house was occupied. The burglars approached the red-brick house on the 2400 block of Hayden Drive in Forest Glen about 9:30 a.m., police said. After hearing suspicious noises outside, the 42-year-old nanny opened the door. "When...

Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, several weeks ago, after a highly classified program was leaked to the media, the President described certain activities of the National Security Agency that he authorized in the weeks following our Nation coming under direct attack on our own soil by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorists. As described by the President, the Vice President, the Attorney General, and experts from the Department of Justice and the intelligence community, the terrorist surveillance program at NSA targets very specific international communications of suspected and known al-Qaida operatives in a foreign country who are communicating with associates around the...

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, on Monday, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the administration's electronic surveillance program and we dealt solely with the issues of law as to whether the resolution to authorize the use of force on September 14 provided authority in contradistinction to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which flatly prohibits any kind of electronic surveillance without a court order. Then we got into the issue of the President's inherent powers under article II. It is difficult to define those powers without knowing more about the program and we do not know about the program. It was...

Russia and China hope to sign a massive arms deal after staging joint exercises for the first time RUSSIA will show off its most modern bombers to its best military customer and China will have a chance to demonstrate that it is a force to be reckoned with when the giant neighbours hold their first joint military exercises this month. The decision to hold the drills off the east China coast in the Yellow Sea came after a disagreement over Beijing’s initial desire for the games to take place further south, opposite the island of Taiwan — which it hopes...

In light of the current Supreme Court vacancy to be filled and those upcoming, and since the words "advice/advise and consent" are being bandied about with veiled and blatant threats by the Democrats, the Founder's actual deliberations and decisions on this subject need to be recalled and re-stated. The Senate is Supposed to Advise and Consent, Not Obstruct and Delay I. The Framers of the Constitution Assigned to the President the Pre-Eminent Role in Appointing Judges. A. The President Alone Has The Power to Nominate Article II of the Constitution provides that the President "shall nominate, and by and with...

Schröder ready to fight parliament over China Chancellor says issue is his responsibility 01. April 2005 F.A.Z. Weekly. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder says he is prepared to overlook the views of the German parliament in his effort to get the European Union to lift its embargo on weapons sales to China. ”I take every vote by the parliament seriously,” Schröder said in an interview that appeared on Wednesday in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. ”But the constitution is clear. … The constitution says that foreign policy is conducted by the federal government.” The Social Democrat's comments focused on an issue that...

The Schaivo case shows most vividly a profound error in the development of our government. We have allowed a branch of the government to evolve without the restraint of checks and balances. The judiciary as a class of government professionals views itself as superior to and not answerable to either the other two branches or to the people

The votes in House District 12 have been counted, and recounted, and the case of one precinct, recounted again and again. But through it all, Democrat candidate Jeanne Windham has never come out ahead. After the final count, it ended up a tie, so now she's filing a lawsuit to try to steal the election away. Windham is contesting five ballots that were awarded to Constitution Party candidate Rick Jore. On all five ballots, the ovals for both Jore and Republican candidate Jack Cross were marked, but then each of the voters marked the ballots in such a way as...

The French and the Germans are trying to create a European counterbalance to the United States. It's a bad strategy -- bad and worn out by clumsy and excessive use. Why? Because Europe's history is weighted down by the pernicious notion of the ``balance of power.'' France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Britain and the Low Countries had more or less comparable dimensions, populations, armies and navies in the 16th Century. So, since then, the major powers' survival strategy was to prevent certain military alliances between states or dynastic empires from gaining so much weight that they would be unbeatable on the...

India was planning to test a long-range ballistic missile that can hit targets deep inside China, sources said as the United States warned the move would escalate tensions in South Asia. Highly-placed sources from the defence research organisation said Friday the earliest probable launch of Agni-III, with a range of 3,000 kilometres (1,860 miles), would be after the end of the Indian monsoon season in September. "The probable window of launch could be after the monsoons when the weather is perfect for us to read all the parameters and functions of the system," a source said. Agni-III can carry a...

How will Ms. Pelosi do it? Her more moderate supporters in the House say she represent both the left and the right of the Democratic Party. Excuse me, but didn't the Green Party win second place in her district? If she moves toward the center at all, won't her own constituency be angry? Won't she then be confronted with a primary challenge the next election? Dick Gephardt had a secure seat, so he could go toward the center as far as he wanted. Nancy Pelosi has no such leverage in her San Fransisco district. Very interesting...