France and UK – Step-daughters of the ”mother” America

 French President, Francois Hollande (who recently was the subject of a huge mass-media scandal and following it separated from his long-time partner, Valerie Trierweiler), arrived at the White House, to the seventh official state dinner of Mr. Obama’s presidency, via limousine just after 7 p.m. According Washington Times, President Obama, clad in a black tuxedo, and first lady Michelle Obama, wearing a formal black and “liberty blue” gown, greeted him at the North Portico of the White House. Two hours later, the two leaders toasted one another and, as they’ve done repeatedly in recent days, touted the deep, seemingly unbreakable Franco-U.S. bond.

Photo by: Pablo Martinez Monsivais
First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama with French President Francois Hollande, center, pose at the Grand Staircase as they arrive for a State Dinner at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

“Our two countries share universal values and we have feelings for one another” Mr. Hollande said. “We love Americans, although we don’t always say so. And you love the French, but you’re sometimes too shy to say so.”

Mr. Obama said the relationship has thrived for so long because both nations stand for the same principles. “We love our French friends because we’ve stood together for our freedom for more than 200 years,” he said. “Long live the alliance between our great nations.”

Big brother has become the ”mother”

Earlier in the day Tuesday, Mr. Obama and Mr. Hollande held a joint press conference at the White House on the heels of a lengthy bilateral meeting. Asked by a journalist from the publication ”Le Figaro” if ”France has become the best European ally of the U.S. and has replaced Great Britain in that role?”, president Obama  tried a diplomatic evasion: ”First of all, I have two daughters.  And they are both gorgeous and wonderful, and I would never choose between them. And that’s how I feel about my outstanding European partners.  All of them are wonderful in their own ways”. But Obama as not as thrilled when he had to answer ”why not extend to France the no-spying agreement that you have with England after the big scandal of the NSA’s surveillance program?” That’s not good ! probably thought U.S. President while he was saying: ”It’s not actually correct to say that we have a “no-spy agreement” with Great Britain.  That’s not actually what happens.  We don’t have — there’s no country where we have a no-spy agreement.  We have, like every other country, an intelligence capability, and then we have a range of partnerships with all kinds of countries.  And we’ve been in consultations with the French government to deepen those commitments”.

Some remarks about the great US-European family and its step-daughters:

Remember that the ”beloved daughter” UK said like an old song “goodbye America” to the mother’s/or big brother/ decision to intervene militarily in Syria. This was the first step that led to the subsequent diplomatic victory of Vladimir Putin. More, to remember about Snowden it means to remember Russia. And this while the U.S. led a hostile propaganda about Sochi Olympics rarely seen.  The moment was not missed nor in Obama – Hollande conference. Noticed that President Obama and French counterpart said that they are united in backing rebel forces in Syria’s civil war and charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin has the blood of Syrian people on his hands. The unusually pointed criticism comes in the midst of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

If we take into account that France needs help in its military expeditions in Africa, then quickly we understand the obedience and interested friendship 0f the president Hollande. European partners of military adventures are harder to find. And home his popularity is in freefall.

France and the UK were rarely able to speak a common language with the rest of EU, and also they are far from being the economic engine and the decision making core to outperform Berlin. Right, Berlin is harder to be appeased with emotionally-demagogic phrases like “daughterly strategic partnership”. Ah, bringing into question the revelations of Snowden‘s worse than Victoria Nuland′s nervousness, lack of tact and hers friendly ”Fuck EU” !

Syrian revenge: has been assassinated the head of Saudi Arabia’s Intelligence? Update: Saudi Arabia replaces intelligence chief

UPDATE: 17 April 2014 – Royal decree exempts Prince Bandar – kingdom’s pointman on Syrian conflict – “from his position at his own request”.

Saudi Arabia has replaced intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom’s pointman on the Syrian conflict, “at his own request”, according to the official news agency.

In a royal decree, Bandar was “exempted … from his position at his own request” and replaced by his deputy, Yousef al-Idrissi, the news service reported on Tuesday. Bandar, a former ambassador to the US, is widely regarded as among the most influential power brokers in the Middle East.
But he went abroad for several months for health reasons, with diplomats saying he had been sidelined in Saudi efforts to support rebels battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Versiunea în limba română.

According The International Business Times, in response to the operation that took place in Damascus on July 18 after which the four senior staff officials of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad were killed (including Defence Minister Dawoud Rajiha), Syrian Intelligence had succeeded the assassination of Saudi spy chief, Prince

Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Quoting sources from a Parisian newspaper, IBT said that Bandar was killed in a bomb attack on July 28, 2012. Mention that there is no official source to confirm these assumptions.

Well, a couple of days after the attack on the Syrian security headquarters, Iranian PressTV reported that was an attack on the Saudi security headquarters. But they said that “deputy of newly-appointed Saudi intelligence-chief Prince Bandar has been killed according to some accounts and that attack seems to have been meant for Prince Bandar himself”.

However, we noticed that the news about the assassination of Bandar comes on the announcement that the U.S. Justice Department is determined to continue its investigation in (the same) Prince Bandar case (where he is accused of receiving bribes from the largest arms dealer in the United Kingdom, BAE Systems, with the complicity of officials from the Ministry of Defence of United Kingdom). Investigations were opened first in the UK in 2006 and subsequently extended to U.S., but then at the request of former Prime Minister Tony Blair case was closed. “The Saudi Prince, who spent at least 20 years as the Saudi ambassador to the United States, received GBP hundreds of millions in bribes by the British contractor with the full knowledge of British Ministry of Defense”, a report by state-run broadcaster BBC revealed for the first time in 2007. The money was channeled to Prince Bandar’s account through a US bank in Washington for over a decade.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States between 1983 and 2005. He was appointed Saudi intelligence chief last month, reportedly a reward for having orchestrated the Damascus attack. Citing a royal decree, the official Saudi Press Agency announced on Thursday (17 July 2012) the replacement of Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz with the former envoy, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. “Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz has been deposed from his current post and appointed as the king’s advisor and special envoy” the Saudi state TV reported.

Update: Saudi officials have denied the veracity of this information.

Security Council’s powerless against the criminal regime of Al-Assad

4 October 2011 – According the United Nations press release: «China and Russia today vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council that had strongly condemned Syrian authorities for their violent crackdown against pro-democracy protesters this year and called for an immediate end to human rights abuses. Nine of the Council’s 15 members voted in favour of the draft text, there were two vetoes, and four countries abstained. A veto by any one of the Council’s five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – means a resolution cannot be adopted.»

UN Security Council meeting

The AFP mentioned that the resolution received four abstentions from Lebanon, India, South Africa and Brazil. Russia’s UN Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said ” The Russian delegation has exerted all possible efforts since the beginning to reach a positive respond by the Security Council with regard to the events witnessed in Syria….we along with China forged a draft resolution in which we referred to the national sovereignty and the non-interference in Syria’s affairs including the military interference, in addition to calling for avoiding any confrontations and holding dialogue to achieve the civil peace and the national interest and to enhance the political and social life in Syria.” He added “The best way to get out of the crisis is to reject the provocations and to hold dialogue among all the Syrian parties…Russia continues its contacts with Damascus and it calls upon the Syrian authorities to be fast in making the changes and to release all the detainees who didn’t commit any criminal acts, in addition to holding dialogue with the opposition.”

In his speech at the UN Security Council, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Bashar al-Ja’afari, said “The unprecedented hostile language used in the statements of some ambassadors against my country and its political leadership stressed that Syria is targeted by its enemies due to its principled stance and not due to any humanitarian reasons…This language also reveals the biased policy adopted by some Western countries and their leadership due to Syria’s independent political stances.” He added that the Syrian leadership has immediately responded to the just popular demands as President Bashar al-Assad announced the comprehensive reform program and the Government started to implement it through a package of laws that enhance the democratic process and expand the participation of the citizens in the political and the economic process regardless of the foreign stances.

For his part, China’s UN Ambassador, Li Baodong, said “We call on the Syrian parties to reject all forms of violence, and we hope that the Syrian Government will implement the reforms soonest possible…The international community should provide a constructive help to facilitate the accomplishment of these goals, and we expect the complete respect of Syria’s sovereignty and independence.”

For her part, U.S Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice expressed her disappointment regarding the Security Council’s failure in adopting a resolution against Syria. Behind the Russian and Chinese vetoes of a U.N. resolution on Syria were not only serious differences over President Bashar Assad’s crackdown against civilians but concerns that even threatening sanctions might lead to a repetition of the NATO bombing campaign in Libya. «The result is that nearly seven months after the uprising against Assad began, the U.N.’s most powerful body remains deeply divided and unable to adopt a legally binding resolution to address the violence in Syria that by U.N. estimates has claimed more than 2,700 lives» said the United Nations officials.

The four European nations that sponsored the Syria resolution — Britain, France, Germany and Portugal — tried to gain Russia and China’s support. They also specified that any sanctions could not be enforced by military action. But when the text was sent to Moscow for review, word came back that it was unacceptable, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations were private. No one would speculate on what happened in the Kremlin that led to the rejection of the resolution. But the veto provoked strong rebukes from the U.S. and Western European countries and human rights groups. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice called claims that the resolution would be a pretext for military intervention “a cheap ruse by those who would rather sell arms to the Syrian regime than stand with the Syrian people.” Syrian allies Russia and China reportedly remain major arms suppliers to the Assad regime. In reply, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin strongly objected to the allegation, “especially coming from a country (The United States) which is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars of military hardware into the area.”

Remember: May 2001 – the United States imposed sanctions on Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and six senior Syrian officials for human rights abuses over their brutal crackdown on anti-government protests. The White House announced the sanctions on Wednesday 18 May, a day before Barack Obama, the US president,  was to deliver a major speech on the uprisings throughout the Arab world with prominent mentions of Syria. The sanctions were part of “an effort to increase pressure on the government of Syria to end its violence against its people and begin transitioning to a democratic system,” a US official told the AFP news agency on the condition of anonymity. Also, the European Union put 13 Syrian officials on its sanctions list in what it described as a move to gradually increase pressure.
Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said his country would not support any UN resolutions on the use of force against the Syrian government. “As for a resolution on Syria, I will not support such a resolution even if my friends and acquaintances ask me about it” Medvedev told reporters during a rare news conference arguing that Syria must be allowed to settle its domestic affairs.