In Latin America, it’s a suspicion shared just as much by those who favor President Obama as oppose him: Does any president of the United States, particularly a ‘rookie’ like Obama, really control the espionage and security apparatus of the United States? This article by Alberto B. Aranguibel of Artgentina’s Cadena Global puts it this way: “In an imperialist culture based in the notion of economic supremacy above all, the institution of the presidency (like Hollywood)...

‘THE PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN MEETS OBAMA’ It’s been a busy weekend in terms of the Af-Pak crisis, and we’ve been working to bring you news and opinion from the Pakistanis and our NATO allies. In one article, an editorial from Pakistan headlined, Karzai’s ‘Odes to Pakistan’ Come Too Late to Stop India, the reasons Pakistan feels so much angst toward Afghan President Hamid Karzai are laid out in detail. So what is it that has gotten Pakistanis so piqued? According...

Now that President Obama has announced that Egypt will be the site of his much-awaited speech to the Muslim world, Egyptians have begun to react. Reflecting the odd mixture of skepticism toward America and appreciation for President Obama’s style that has gripped much of the Muslim world, this article, written by an opposition member of Egypt’s parliament, warns Muslims not to put too much stock in Obama’s ‘beautiful words.’ For Amal Al Ummah, the newspaper of the...

People in the United States often don’t realize the significance of events like the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which was held just days ago. But for people in other parts of the world, particularly journalists where press freedom of any kind is still a distant dream, such an event is hard to imagine. In this article from Ecuador’s El Universo, Manuel Ignacio Gomez Lecaro laments the lack of such institutions in Ecuador and Venezuela, where Presidents Correa and...

Now that we’re all tied up into ideological pretzels, is it time once and for all, to reconsider the labels ‘left’ and ‘right’? That’s the question addressed in this article by Patrik Etschmayer, columnist for the Swiss newspaper Nachrichten. Etschmayer writes in part: “More than ever, the Left condemns the market economy, demands an end to globalization and the establishment of socialism – yet it has no working example of its vision to show. …...

‘NETANYAHU GOVERNMENT’: Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman is seen chasing an Arab child. With President Obama slated to give his much-awaited ’speech to the Arab world’ in Cairo on June 4, it seems Arabs are afraid to hope for too much. There may be, compared to President Bush, wide Muslim support for Obama, but there is far less confidence – even now – that he will significantly alter American foreign policy, particularly in regard to Israel. And beyond what...

This article from Russia seethes with irony and contains a good dose of what Germans call ‘shadenfreuder.’ This is a word that means ‘to take pleasure in the pain of others.’ As most people know – the United States recruited, paid and supplied Islamic mujaheddin to dislodge the Soviet Union from Afghanistan during the Carter and Reagan Administrations. According to this analysis by Petr Goncharov and Dmitriy Kosirev of Russia’s Novosti News Service –...

The release of American journalist Roxana Saberi from an Iranian prison highlights an urgent question that the Tehran regime is struggling to address: How should Iran deal with the inevitability of Western media infiltration? According to this analysis by Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh of Germany’s Die Welt, the investigative arm of Iran’s parliament [the Majlis] has just completed a 38-page study designed to help the leadership navigate the shoals of the new media world. For Die Welt, Dr....

So now that the big White House summit involving the heads of state of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States has been held, are our NATO allies feeling more comfortable with Washington’s strategy? According to Die Zeit’s Martin Klingst - far from it. For Die Zeit, Klingst writes in part: “On Wednesday, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton smiled for the media and spoke of a breakthrough. But neither could betray that there were no breakthroughs to speak...

Here’s something unusual if not startling from France’s left-leaning Le Monde newspaper: an op-ed the criticizes Obama’s perceived crackdown on the well-connected and wealthy – and what the author calls his ‘anti-business bias.’ For Le Monde, Frederic Lemaitre laments Obama’s handling of the auto sector, his investments in the green economy, and his intention to eliminate off-shore tax havens: “While the press sings the praises of Barack Obama one...

It’s not a new phenomenon: Innocent people, intentionally or not harboring terrorists – are killed in a U.S.-led attack. Continuing with our multi-pronged coverage of the Af-Pak sitiation, this editorial from Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran makes it clear once again that such events remain detrimental to winning hearts and minds in the Muslim world. For Le Quotidien d’Oran, K. Selim writes in part: “To speak of a ‘blunder’ or ‘collateral damage’...

What do Pakistanis at the heart of the civil-regional war now taking place in that country think of the Obama Administration’s new “Af-Pak” strategy and yesterday’s White House mini-summit with the presidents of the two countries? To find out, we’ve been focusing a good deal of attention of Pakistan’s Frontier Post – aptly named as it is published in Quetta – the capital of Balochistan Province right along the Afghan border. According to today’s...

This characteristically cold-eyed article from Russia’s Izvestia, once the official newspaper of the Soviet government, joins in the global summing up of President Obama’s first 100 days in office, and makes a startling admission – considering the newspaper’s origins. For Izvestia, Vasiliy Voropayev writes in part: “Summing things up is an absorbing preoccupation. Even if so far, there isn’t much to sum up. … Every politician has to make lots of promises....

Unlike much of the global coverage of the the torture issue, this article from France’s Liberation sets out to explain how it came to be that officials of the United States, regarded by many people around the world as the the foremost defender of freedom, came to use the very practices U.S. forces have fought and died to prevent. For France’s Liberation, essayist and historian Tzvetan Todorov writes in part: “The documents made public by the Obama Administration on April 16 relating...

Continuing with our coverage of the Pakistan media reaction to American attempts to address the ongoing chaos involving the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the region, this editorial from Pakistan’s The Nation rejects any discussion of removing Pakistan’s highly-enriched uranium to the United States, as was reported in the Boston Globe on Tuesday. Calling into question the reliability of the United States as a partner – particularly due to nuclear exceptions accorded India, The Nation...

With President Obama and Secretary Clinton holding urgent talks at the White House with the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, it seems as though the Pakistani press considers the events now unfolding in that country to be the responsibility of others – nor is there much sign the American aid to that country is appreciated. According to this editorial from The Frontier Post, a newspaper literally on the front lines along the Afghan border in Quetta, the capital of the strife-torn province...

The debate in Latin America over whether it was a mistake for President Obama to show such warmth to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez shows no signs of abating. Roberto Olivares of Colombia’s El Tiempo, as though he were a loyal member of the Bush Administration, berates President Obama for diminishing himself and his country. Olivares writes in part: “Perhaps a simple handshake to demonstrate some class, a bit of elegance, and a renewed and refreshing diplomatic modernism would not have...

From The Netherlands, where in 1620 the Pilgrims embarked on their voyage to the New World, comes a reminder of this nation’s roots in a rather strong editorial indicting the use of torture in the United States. The editorial board of the NRC Handelsblad writes in part: “The core of the constitutional state – the shining city on a hill that the U.S. wants to protect, has in fact been undermined. … During the Korean War, American soldiers were victims of the kind of practices...

In an interesting juxtaposition to the article we posted yesterday from Venezuela entitled, President Chavez ‘Puts Early End’ to Honeymoon with Obama, and in line with another article we posted from that country headlined, Obama is No ‘Black in Chavez’ Pocket’, this article by Alexander Cambero of Colombia’s El Tiempo lambastes Hugo Chavez as a ‘Tropical Napoleon’ laid low by that leader of empire, President Barack Obama. Those sensitive to a bit...

For those interested in a fuller accounting of the May Day remarks of President Hugo Chavez in regard to the Obama Administration than those available on the wire services, this news item from Venezuela’s Tal Cual offers extensive quotes – and coverage of the harsh manner in which his government dealt with pro-democracy counter-demonstrations on the same day. The Tal Cual report says in part: “President Hugo Chavez took advantage of International Worker’s Day celebrations...

In Europe and elsewhere, the revulsion over U.S. treatment of terrorist detainees shows little sign of abating, and, as this op-ed from Switzerland shows, neither does the self-loathing over the fact that European governments actively participated or turned a blind eye – or as Swiss columnist Francois Gross puts it, “allies of these Crusaders, worthy of their ancestors remained silent. The enablers of the masters of the world caged foreign detainees on their own soil.” Gross continues...

There has been a lot of criticism from Europe about President Obama’s plan for achieving a nuclear weapons free world, essentially because most columnists there think it wildly naive. This commentary from the Global Geographic Times of the People’s Republic of China, however, sees the idea as a way for America to extend its global dominance by denying the rest of the world any way to deter the United States, which has the most potent conventional military in history. For China’s...

‘WE’VE ALREADY INFECTED HALF THE WORLD WITH OUR SWINE FLU …TO ADD TO OUR PROBLEMS, SOON THEY’LL CLASSIFY US AS ONE OF THE COUNTRIES IN THE AXIS OF EVIL.’ Is it plausible that United States biowarfare research is intentionally or accidentally behind the latest virus to plague the world? According to Carlos Ferreyra of Mexico’s La Cronica de Hoy, one of the many rumors floating around Mexico is that Donald Rumsfeld, who owns a huge chunk of a company called Gilead...

For those curious about the Byzantine world of Lebanese politics and how the United Stats fits it to it, this article from Lebanon’s L’Orient Le Jour will provide a glimpse. This article, written by L’Orient Le Jour’s Issa Goraieb, discusses the controversy that erupted after Secretary of State Clinton, during her first trip to Beirut, visited the tomb of former Prime Minister Rafik Harari, who it is widely believed was assassinated in a Syria-sponsored hit in 2005. In...

When a quarter million Western and Afghan troops confront al-Qaeda, the Taliban and whatever jihadi fighters they can muster from around the Muslim world – all in proximity to Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile – what will be the result? According to Sateh Noureddine, columnist for Lebanon’s As Satif, that moment is fast approaching. He writes in part: “The battle will pit the armies of the superpower and its allies against the most violent and radical of Islamist groups,...