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President Barack Obama will send his Vice President Joseph Biden and a top-level delegation to the Munich Security Conference this weekend to hear what US allies have to say before his new foreign policies go into effect. Biden's speech at the conference Saturday was billed by an Obama official who requested anonimity as "the first major foreign policy of this White House." While Obama focuses on the economic crisis back home, Biden in Europe "will outline the sort of vision of foreign policy and national security policy that this administration brings to the world stage now that it's in power,"...

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to prohibit the use of waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques by ordering the CIA to follow military rules for questioning prisoners, according to two U.S. officials familiar with drafts of the plans. The proposal Obama is considering would require all CIA interrogators to follow conduct outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, the officials said. The plans would also have the effect of shutting down secret "black site" prisons around the world where the CIA has questioned terror suspects — with all future interrogations taking place inside American military facilities. However, Obama's changes...

Last week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a British resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Resolution 1860 was a slap at Israel's self-defense, but, unusually, the United States abstained on the vote. That's no way to lead. If Washington concluded that a harsh resolution on Gaza was warranted, the proper course was to vote for it. And that is, apparently, what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had hoped to do. Speaking to the Security Council, Ms. Rice endorsed the basic content of the British draft, saying "this resolution is a step toward our goals." She also...

Exclusive: TVNewser has learned veteran Fox News Channel anchor E.D. Hill will not be renewed when her current contract expires. Hill, who has been with Fox News for more than 10 years, will continue with the network for the next few months until her current deal expires. SVP of Programming Bill Shine tells TVNewser that he "chose not to renew E.D.'s latest contract" but noted that "Hill has been a valued contributor to the success of FNC over the years, and we wish her all the best." Hill has been without a regular Fox News program since June 16,...

Clinton blindsided by scheduled event with Palin By DEVLIN BARRETT – 19 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has canceled an appearance at a New York rally next week after organizers blindsided her by inviting Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, aides to the senator said Tuesday. Several American Jewish groups plan a major rally outside the United Nations on Sept. 22 to protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don't care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace -- in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough's show -- the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin's scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads....

Censorship is when the government prevents you from publishing something. When the subject is Islam, the government does not have to do anything to block publication. Our publishers decide on their own that it would be best for them not to publish anything that could possibly offend Muslims. Random House is leading the way. Random House pulls novel on Islam, fears violence Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed's child bride, fearing it could "incite acts of violence." "The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on...

According to an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Random House has reneged on an agreement to publish a novel about Aisha, Muhammad’s young wife. The Jewel of Medina, written by Sherry Jones, allegedly has some racy material, enough to provoke one of the writers who vetted the book, Denise Spellberg, to warn the publisher that it could inspire violence. Random House decided not to publish the book for “fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims” and concern for “the safety and security of the Random House building and employees.” Addressing this today is Catholic League president Bill...

Boris Johnson urged people to walk away if they see a crime committed rather than risk their own lives. The London mayor admitted he would tell his own children to "look after themselves" rather than play Good Samaritan to a victim. "Everybody is shocked by the level of violence we are seeing, particularly towards young people, and we must all work as hard as we can to reverse this dreadful trend."

Hold your horses their cowboy! It's not that type of fence ya'll (Yes, I said it. I'm from Texas sue me). Demos are not in support of a fence that'll keep illegal immigrants out of the country, but they are in support of a fence that'll keep undesirables OUT of their convention. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the DNC regarding the fence they have decided to set up outside their Convention arena. The ACLU is claiming that the demos attempts to keep other democrat protesters out is a violation of their 1st amendment right to peacefully gather. This...

AS Hezbollah's terror army dismantles Lebanon, the world whistles "Ain't That a Shame." With its heavily funded proxies marching through an Arab democracy's ruins, Iran has arrived on the Mediterranean, outflanking Israel. Syria's surrogates punish Beirut. Lebanon's crippled government cringes at the whims of Hassan Nasrullah, Hezbollah's strongman. Terror rules. And not one civilized country lifts a finger. This doesn't mean that war will be avoided at the "negligible" cost of Lebanese lives and freedom. It just means that the inevitable showdown with Hezbollah will be a bloodier mess when it finally comes. When will we face reality? Hezbollah can't...

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - Sweden's foreign minister said Saturday that the United Nations will have to stay in Kosovo to act as a buffer between nations that recognize Kosovo's statehood and those that do not. Carl Bildt said the U.N., European Union and NATO would need to adjust their plans in Kosovo after the U.N. was sidelined last month when Kosovo declared independence, due to a deadlock caused by Russia's opposition and U.S. and key European countries' backing for the new country. "We are operating in a somewhat different situation from the one that we were planning for," Bildt told...

History has been a harsh critic of Neville Chamberlain's decision in 1938 to allow Adolf Hitler to trash the WWI Versailles peace treaty to seize control of and change the borders Europe, first France in the Rhineland, then Czechoslovakia and Poland. President George W. Bush's quick acceptance of the efforts of the Albanians in Kosovo to change the borders of Serbia will also be viewed in history as an appeasement that did not work. World War II actually began when Adolf Hitler marched a mere 14,500 troops into the Rhineland on March 7, 1936, in violation of the Treaty of...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A U.S. Army medic jailed for desertion after refusing to return to Iraq is on a mission to tell young Americans about the grim realities of war before they join the military. Mexican-born combat medic Agustin Aguayo, in Germany to receive a peace award, told Reuters that U.S. Army recruitment methods were unfair as young people got a one-sided, positive picture of combat. "I want to bring young people awareness. We ask them to sacrifice so much yet we don't educate them about the realities of war," said Aguayo, who describes himself as a conscientious objector, in...

Numerous Iraqi military and law-enforcement officials brought to the U.S. as part of special intelligence and training programs have run away and are seeking asylum in this country or disappeared altogether...Intelligence officials...say nearly a dozen Iraqis fled military training facilities in the U.S., including a brigadier general who went to Canada with his family...Army officials confirmed that five Iraqi military personnel whom the Army had been training disappeared between 2005 and 2007. They did not know how many other Iraqis sponsored by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy may have done the same. "Nothing that this command is aware...

A Simple Way to End the War on Terror by Yacka Jah Yacka Tue Oct 23, 2007 at 09:03:20 PM PDT While it appears from more than one point of view that the War in Iraq and the War on Terror are situations from which we may never be able to extricate ourselves, from the mountains of Pakistan comes a very simple solution: convert to Islam. Before we reject this out of hand, lets seriously consider it for a moment: Osama Bin Laden promised the wars would be over if Americans convert to Islam. This may sound like a lot...

“...there must be a wonderful soothing power in mere words…I take it that what all men are really after is some form or perhaps only some formula of peace..” (our emphasis) ---Under Western Eyes, Joseph Conrad When Horsefeathers served as a Navy psychiatrist during the Vietnam war, one of his weekly duties was interviewing and assessing potential draftees who were seeking to avoid service by claiming mental illness. Many of these were recent Ivy League graduates, students of the humanities, who were active protesters of what they insisted was an immoral war.

More Republicans have defected to the withdraw-from-Iraq Democrats. They have read the polls that show falling support among the American people for the war in Iraq, and have concluded that continuing to support the war will cost them their Senate or House seat. Is it possible that some of these Republicans have simply consulted their consciences and decided to abandon positions they have held since the beginning of the war? It is possible. But consider this: If the American people continued to support the war, does one reader of this column believe that one Republican defector would have in fact...

As of this minute, I want you to ignore reality. "PM Brown: Don't Say Terrorists Are Muslims" By Macer Hall, Political Editor, Daily Express Tuesday July 3,2007: "Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word Muslim in connection with the terrorism crisis. The Prime Minister has also instructed his team including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that the phrase war on terror is to be dropped. The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more 'consensual tone' than existed under Tony Now that we can no longer name the...

The most succinct observation I've come across about the failure of comprehensive immigration reform is that of pollster Scott Rasmussen. The American public simply didn't want the bill. Rasmussen's polling indicated the immigration legislation being pushed had the support of just 22 percent of the American public. Rasmussen goes on further to point out just how far detached from the sentiment of the voting public those pushing the bill were. Not only didn't the American public want the bill, but the focus of the immigration debate in the Senate was the opposite of the public's highest concern. According to Rasmussen,...