USA: Obama Administration
Thanks to a remarkable communication campaign, the Anglo-American empire succeeded in restoring the image of the United States as a democratic and authoritative country that George W. Bush had tarnished. Arousing a groundswell of sympathy throughout the world, Barack Obama is skillfully enacting his role as first Black president of the USA, using his charm and elegance to pursue through different methods the same rapacious policies as those of his predecessors. He granted full immunity to the Bush Administration, prolonged the occupation of Iraq, expanded the one in Afghanistan, used the economic crisis to intensify the exploitation of the Third World by the IMF and the World Bank, compelled the funds invested in foreign contries to seek refuge in Anglo-American tax havens, took advantage of the ecological crisis to set asymmetrical economic norms, manipulated the fight against pandemics to impose a supranational authority, etc.
Damascus (Syria) | 10 March 2013While the Syrian Arab army has lost Rakka, leaving de facto a northern part of the country under Turkish control, the United States has been sending contradictory signals. Have they have chosen to continue the war by proxy or are they gearing up to impose on their allies the peace agreement they have negotiated with the Russians?
Washington D.C. (USA) | 20 February 2013SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for an extraordinarily warm welcome, Charlotte. I am really honored to be here.
Senator Tim Kaine, thank you very, very much for your generous words of introduction. Tim, as he mentioned, has only been on the Foreign Relations Committee, I guess now for a total of a few weeks, but I can, based on his testimony a moment ago, positively commend him on his voting record. (Laughter and applause.) He’s (...)
14 February 2013Mr. President, tell us who your C.I.A. Director is and we will tell you who you are! No remark could be more appropriate in view of Barack Obama’s decision to place an apologist for torture and drone assassinations at the helm of the top U.S. intelligence agency. Analyst Nil Nikandrov fills out John O. Brennan’s profile, a man who enjoys the President’s "implicit trust."
Washington D.C. (USA) | 12 February 2013Thank you. Please, everybody, have a seat.
Mr. Speaker,
Mr. Vice President,
Members of Congress,
Fellow Americans,
Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power, but partners for progress.”
(APPLAUSE)
“It is my task,” he said, “to report the state of the union. To improve it is the task of us all.”
Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of (...)
Damascus (Syria) | 4 February 2013Hillary Clinton’s departure was carefully orchestrated to preserve her chances of becoming the Democratic Party’s candidate for the next presidential election. The former first lady still contemplates returning to the White House and all the bets are on for a spectacular duel in 2016 between the two political dynasties, with Jeb Bush (GWB’s elder brother) as the other contestant.
Be that as it may, Clinton’s first headed for the Council on Foreign Relations where she presented her report to (...)
Washington D.C. (USA) | 29 January 2013Washington, DC – At a business meeting led by Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) this morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved by voice vote the nomination of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to the post of Secretary of State.
Following their approval of Sen. Kerry’s nomination, committee members presented Kerry with a committee resolution honoring his service as its chairman.
26 January 2013The Emergency Committee for Israel (Emergency Committee for Israel) has stealthily organized a campaign against the appointment of Chuck Hagel as U.S. Secretariat of Defense.
This associatio is a magnet for neo-conservatives who are reluctant to come to terms with AIPAC’s decline and intend to apply new methods of influence. Its members have played a crucial role in Benjamin Netanyahu’s support of the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidential election, Mitt Romney.
They created (...)
26 January 2013The U.S. press announced with a pinch of surprise Antony Blinken’s appointment as the new National Security Adviser or as Deputy National Security Advisor.
Only the readers and listeners of Thierry Meyssan were in the know. He broke the news exactly three months ago in various newspapers (article relayed on our website on November 28, 2012). At the time he wrote:
"The noted Zionist, but nevertheless pragmatist, Antony Blinken may become head of the United States National Security Council, (...)
Washington D.C. (USA) | 21 January 2013Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice,members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:
Each time we gather to inaugurate a President we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional — what makes us American — is our allegiance to an idea articulated (...)
29 December 2012While the French press persists in announcing the "imminent fall" of Syria and the "flight of Bashar al-Assad," the reality on the ground has turned around completely. Even though chaos is plaguing most of the territory, the "liberated zones" have melted like snow in the sun. Deprived of its anchor points, the FSA has been left with no prospects in sight, while Washington and Moscow are poised to blow the whistle to end the game.
6 December 2012The ex-Republican senator from Nebraska, Charles T. Hagel (known as "Chuck"), may be chosen by Democratic President Barack Obama as the next Secretary of Defense.
President Obama wants to nominate Democratic senator John Kerry as Secretary of State, but was reserving the possibility of handing him the Defense posting if he could not find a suitable candidate.
Chuck Hagel, a Chevron executive, presides over the Atlantic Council (one of NATO’s think tanks). He maintains trusting relations (...)
Damascus (Syria) | 28 November 2012Photo: Mr. and Mrs. Kerry with Mr. and Mrs. Assad, during a private dinner at a restaurant in Damascus, 2009.
Enjoying a legitimacy reinforced by his reelection, President Barack Obama is preparing to launch a new foreign policy – drawing the conclusions from the relative economic weakening of the United States, he has renounced the idea of governing the world on his own. US forces continue their departure from Europe and their partial disengagement from the Middle East in order to take (...)
13 November 2012According to Fox News, on October 26, David Petraeus’ mistress may have leaked classified information relating to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Paula Broadwell revealed that the Consulate annex was the most important CIA base in North Africa and it served as a secret prison.
The neoconservative channel establishes a link between the leak and the forced resignation of the Director General of the CIA, due to this extra-marital affair.
This interpretation of the facts is (...)
Brussels (Belgium) | 13 November 2012Far from having broken with his Republican predecessor, Democratic President Barack Obama has now reinforced the law of exception that he criticised when he was a senator. It is now possible to deprive United States citizens of their fundamental rights because they have taken part in armed action against their own country, but also when they take a political position favourable to those who use military action to resist the Empire. Worse - Barack Obama has added to the law John Yoo’s "Unitary Executive theory," which puts an end to the principles of the separation of powers as defined by Montesquieu. The security policy of the United States President now escapes all control.
14 February 2012Joseph Stiglitz comments on the recent woes of the U.S. economy, which came as a rude awakening for the apostles of the "American dream." It is thanks to the special status of the dollar that Washington still enjoys an authority disproportionate to its objective economic capacities. So far, the U.S. military managed to deter any challenge to this privileged status. Nevertheless their position is eroding, both morally and militarily, in the face of emerging powers. Accordingly, the double veto by Russia and China on 4 February rang like a wake-up call back to reality. A rebalancing is inevitable, and it is the geopolitical impact of this economic readjustment that we have to brace for in 2012, according to the Nobel Prize in economics.
Washington D.C. (USA) | 24 January 2012Mr. Speaker,
Mr. Vice President,
members of Congress,
distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:
Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought — and several thousand gave their lives.
We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the (...)
Mexico City (Mexico) | 17 January 2012Mexican political analyst Alfredo Jalife-Rahme analyzes the recent Pentagon and White House strategic and budgetary options. While an extremist fringe continues to nurture the unaffordable dream of US domination over the entire globe, President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in line with the policy initiated by Robert Gates, recognize the structural decline of U.S. power. Widening the distance from the Bush-Cheney era, they are re-channeling funds towards more realistic goals and gradually re-allocating resources to Asia and China.
Washington D.C. (USA) | 17 January 2012The Pentagon
Washington, D.C.
5 January 2012
Good morning, everybody.
The United States of America is the greatest force for freedom and security that the world has ever known. And in no small measure, that’s because we’ve built the best-trained, best-led, best-equipped military in history — and as Commander-in-Chief, I’m going to keep it that way.
Indeed, all of us on this stage — every single one of us — have a profound responsibility to every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and Coast (...)
26 November 2011The US oligarchy US defends its class interests and maintains its grip on political power domestically by leaning on secret societies such as Skull & Bones or think tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). At the international level, it uses elitist clubs, such as the Bilderberg Group, to co-opt foreign oligarchies to its project for a new global governance. Our colleague Patrick Wood explains the workings of the Trilateral Commission, one more clog in this complex machine, whose role was recently highlighted when Mario Monti, the chairman of its European section, was imposed as Italian Prime Minister.
23 November 2011Suzanne Nossel, former assistant to Richard Holbrooke in his capacity as UN Ambassador and currently Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Assistant for International Organization Affairs, has been selected as the new Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. In the discharge of her duties at the State Department, she diligently exploited human rights to benefit imperial ambitions.
Ms. Nossel had previously worked for Human Rights Watch, as well as for Bertelsmann Media Worldwide and the Wall (...)
Washington D.C. (USA) | 7 November 2011The Arab Spring
Thank you. Well, it’s a great pleasure for me to be here this evening. And I thank my friend and my predecessor, Madeleine Albright, for not only that kind introduction, but for her extraordinary leadership, and in particular of NDI. Thanks also to Shari Bryan and Ken Wollack for inviting me here today. And I want to begin by wishing an Eid Mubarak to Muslims here tonight and around the world.
I think it’s important to recognize that back when the streets of Arab cities were (...)
7 November 2011Thank you Ken, and congratulations on your continued superb leadership here at NDI [National Democracy Institute].
Excellencies from the diplomatic corps and Capitol Hill, distinguished guests from overseas, friends and supporters of NDI, good evening to you all.
Not long ago, when I was wondering what to say tonight, I noticed one of those newspaper articles we often see entitled, “Five Myths” about one topic or another; I think in this case it was the G-20.
Such articles usually attempt (...)
5 November 2011Washington responded to the admission of the Palestinian Authority to UNESCO by pulling out of the organization, but without leaving it formally. This is what the Reagan administration had done in 1984 for similar reasons. But this reflex response poses unexpected problems to the State Department.
First, it is difficult to fathom in what way cutting funds for education programs in the world will advance the cause of peace in the Middle East. Second, it is baffling to hear Washington (...)
8 September 2011At her confirmation hearing by the Senate of the United States, on 8 August 2011, Wendy Sherman announced that the State Department would veto a Palestinian request for recognition of statehood should it reach the U.N. Security Council,
Ms. Sherman is counselor to the former Secretary of State and current NDI / NED Chairperson, Madeleine Albright. She has been designated new Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, which makes her the third-highest ranking official at Foggy Bottom. (...)
Rome (Italy) | 3 July 2011The economic crisis is driving the Obama administration to opt for secret military action over conventional wars. It has therefore developed "special military operations" to an unprecedented level. Two major axes have been favoured: drone assassinations and media saturation by shadow informant networks set up in those countries slated for destabilisation.
Washington D.C. (USA) | 20 June 2011Thank you, everybody. It is wonderful to see so many great friends. To Amy and all those who helped to organize tonight’s dinner, I couldn’t be more grateful.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, our new DNC chair, thank you for all the extraordinary work that you’re doing. (Applause.) I could not have made a better pick.
I want to spend most of the time in a conversation as opposed to just me making a long speech. But I do want to talk a little bit about the context in which we meet this evening. (...)
Brussels (Belgium) | 10 June 2011Thank you, Mr. Secretary General, Jaap, for that kind introduction.
And my thanks to Giles Merritt and the Security and Defense Agenda for the opportunity to speak here today. This is Day 11 of an 11-day international trip so you can understand why I am very much looking forward to getting home. But I am glad – at this time, in this venue – to share some thoughts with you this morning about the transatlantic security relationship in what will be my last policy speech as U.S. defense (...)
28 May 2011On Sunday May 22, 2011, Barack Obama spoke at an AIPAC Conference, three days after giving his pro-Israeli speech at the State Department on his broader Middle East foreign policy. It was a shockingly partisan speech to the extremist lobbying group that has the entire US Congress in an unprecedented deadlock that has become the envy of even the National Rifle Association.
Washington D.C. (USA) | 19 May 2011U.S. State Department
Washington D.C.
May 19, 2011
Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you. Please, have a seat. Thank you very much. I want to begin by thanking Hillary Clinton, who has traveled so much these last six months that she is approaching a new landmark — one million frequent flyer miles. I count on Hillary every day, and I believe that she will go down as of the finest Secretaries of State in our nation’s history.
The State Department is a fitting (...)

Legislation to Establish Internment Camps on US Military Bases

Everything You Need to Know About Oil, Gas, Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan and Obama

