After the audacious mission that took down the mastermind of 9/11, speculation has been rampant as to whether the perverse legacy of this man — his “dead hand” — will continue to control or influence future jihadist terrorist actions. No one knows for sure. Our intelligence agencies are still methodically analyzing the so-called trove of documents and data — “a bonanza of...

Early reactions from Europe and Asia to President Barack Obama’s elegant eloquence include caution and puzzlement at the key issues left out, although they stem from Mideast events and his support for democracy and human liberties. Somewhat like an educator, he clarified the broad lines of US policies in the Mideast and explained the recent historical context. But they were mostly restatements of already...

Mike Keefe, The Denver Post This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

As I wrote here, following the dastardly September 11 attacks, the U.S. State Department offered a $25 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Osama Bin Laden. At the State Department’s “Rewards for Justice” web site, “Seeking Information Against International Terrorism,” one can still see “Usama bin Ladin’s” mug shot; one can still see the “Up to $25 Million...

Days ago, Germany’s Die Welt published an investigative report on a secret agreement between Venezuela and Iran for a joint medium-range missile base on Venezuelan soil. The 1,100 word article by columnist Clemens Wergin, outlines not only the location of the base, but offers details on its design and strategic purpose, which will not only pose a threat to the United States, but to Venezuela’s...

Before you buy another IPhone, or any IPhone if you are a first purchaser, read this article about almost a dozen suicides at the company in China that makes IPhones. The article is dated September 9, 2010, and the horror it describes happened in August 2010, but this is the first I’ve heard of it. And the only reason I heard about it now is because I am on TechRepublic‘s mailing list. The company’s...

No matter what President Obama would say today in a widely anticipated speech on the Middle East had to be tempered with certain expectation-lowering realities. Chief among them is that the pro-democracy fever sweeping the Arab world has much to do with Al-Jazeera and social media and little to do with Obama or Bush foreign policies, and that Israel, determined to be on the wrong side of history, will continue...

The Importance of Being Tony Kushner by Michael Winship Coincidence combined with foresight on the part of my girlfriend Pat — she bought the tickets months ago — landed us at a performance of Tony Kushner’s new play, just days after the executive committee of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) board of trustees held an emergency meeting and scrambled to reverse an earlier board...

It’s fair to say that with the arrest of Socialist Party rising star and IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French left is in disarray. Meanwhile, the French press is under attack from the “Anglo-Saxons” for, in effect, giving “DSK” a pass all these years – even though his behavior toward the opposite sex was widely known. In this article from France’s left-wing...

At home and abroad, large numbers of people are asking the same question: regardless of the crime or the criminal, is it fitting with common decency to celebrate a man’s death – even a man like Osama bin Laden? For Portugal’s Visao, Filipe Luis writes that even if he and most people see the benefit of eliminating bin Laden, the celebration of the event in and out of Portugal was a shameful...

There is an odd parallel to the U.S. mission to pluck Osama bin Laden from Pakistan and the New York arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, one of France’s most powerful and successful politicians. While the French, like Pakistan, are aghast at how the presumed wrongdoer was ‘detained’ – they both also assert disgust with the crimes they are – or were – charged with. To say that...

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, separated after she learned he had fathered a child more than a decade ago … with a longtime member of their household staff. Mr. Schwarzenegger publicly apologized for this prior indiscretion and Ms. Shriver has yet to issue any public statement. Needless to say, other Guvernator mistresses...

Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Switzerland This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

I have made it clear that I’m not bullish on China.  The increasing cost of transportation will make it dificult to economically make Walmart fodder in China and ship it back to the US.  We have already seen it the steel industry where both US and Mexican steel makers are doing very well. The Economist points out another problem for China – Fading Labor Arbitrage. “WHEN clients are considering...

Guest post by Ali Ezzatyar Ali Ezzatyar is a journalist and American attorney practising in Paris, France. His beard is long and grey; he is reputed for living a rather simple life, but Israel’s prime minister recently called him the greatest threat to the world. He is the Supreme Leader of Iran. As attention remains focused on Abbottabad, Iran’s nuclear program continues nearby. Some are hoping...

Two presidential campaigns crash in one day. The Donald folds a flirtation with the 2012 Republican nomination after weeks of pasting his name over the news, as always leaving onlookers wondering what it was all about beyond enhancing the brand. In a nearby posh Manhattan hotel, a contender for next year’s French presidency flames out in more traditional fashion, with a bedroom scandal out of classic farce...

If German Special Forces had been the ones to whisk Osama bin Laden from Pakistan – could Germany have reformed him, turning him into a model German citizen? In this tongue-in-cheek skewering of German liberalism, Die Welt columnist Gideon Boss writes that because of those ‘Mickey Mouse’ Americans, we will never know. For Die Welt, Gideon Boss writes in part: One might well ask whether things...

With all the recent depressing and relatively boring news on both the international and domestic fronts, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director “the great seducer” Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) was arrested this weekend and continues to be held by New York City Police on various sexual charges arising out of an encounter gone bad in a $3,000-a-night hotel suite. The world’s shallow 24/7 info-entertainment...

The least that can be said about Erik Prince is that he worships a very unusual God. The son of the co-founder of the ultra-conservative Family Research Council, Prince considers himself a Christian of the highest order who holds strong views on the sanctity of life. How then to square this with Prince’s decidely un-Christian avocation as an entrepreneur specializing in death and destruction? ...

I am a big fan of The Economist, but the latest article on Germany’s foreign policy "The unadventurous eagle" leaves me a bit confused. The title suggests that Germany is not going on foreign policy adventures. That’s good, right? The subheading, however, is negative and asserts cautiously "Europe’s biggest economic power seems reluctant to have a foreign policy to match."...

Jorge Benitez of the Atlantic Council writes in the New Atlanticist about the new NATO, which "is defined by US caveats, French political will, British leadership, German uncertainty, and a tangible level of commitment by some allies." It’s a good article, but I take issue with some of the harsher criticism against Germany, even though I agree that our foreign minister did not handle this issue...

For Americans who yearn for life in Europe, with its more generous social safety net and strict rules for firing employees, columnist Andrzej Lubowski of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza has some disheartening news: the idyllic lifestyle Europeans have come to expect is in its death throes. For Gazeta Wyborcza, Andrzej Lubowski writes in part: “There is nothing more enjoyable than an evening stroll in early...

Is NATO making a mistake by maintaining a stalemate between Libyan despot Mohammar Qaddafi and the insurgents seeking to topple his 40-year-old regime? For Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, columnist Stefan Kornelius writes that unless NATO is willing to accept a continuation of Qaddafi’s rule or a fruitless continuation of currect circumstances, it should start setting up ‘protection zones’...

The big question about Osama bin Laden lingers: was he living in the residential area of Abbottabad close to Pakistan’s West Point due to some links between Pakistan bigwigs to terrorist groups? Or was it simply a matter of not knowing — in other words incompetence. The answer: Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Pakistan’s equivilent of the head of the CIA, is without saying it that it was incompetence....

It’s really cheep now in London. The reason: a big explosion in the number of wild parakeets: Native to the Indian subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa, the rose-ringed parakeet is enjoying a population explosion in many London suburbs, turning a once-exotic bird into a notorious pest that awakens children, monopolizes garden bird feeders and might even threaten British crops. When I lived in India as...