FP 2009 Update – Week 21 – The Cable

Week 21 at Laura Rozen’s The Cable was instructive in many ways…  Carl Levin holds up a key Middle East Diplomat’s nomination confirmation to bring light on an age old Libya reparations battle.   Egyptian and Palestinian leadership descend on DC.   Saudi Arabia is added to Obama’s stopover list for his overseas jaunt which is designed to continue building international G-20 support and Muslim Accomodation.  Paul Farmer’s name is added to the list of possible heads for USAID – his 20 year history of making water out of wine in the poverty laden world medical community is unmatched.   Netanyahu pragmatically offers a settlement freeze in exchange for unconditional support on Iranian issue – beyond that, his response was basically “What the Hell does Obama want from me?”   Saudi Arabia puts a leash on Western journalists following Obama’s trail.  Israeeli Foreign Minister Barak has an impromptu 15 minute meeting with Barack Obama, who drops in on his meeting with Gen. Jim Jones.  Sarkozy begins overtures and direct engagement with Iran as a lead up to Obama’s travel plans.

Gary H. Johnson, Jr. (2:57amEST)

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com

Libya claim delays Feltman confirmation vote
Tue, 05/26/2009 – 3:18pm
A compensation claim regarding Libya appears to be delaying the confirmation vote of Jeffrey Feltman to become assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, The Cable has learned.

Feltman’s nomination was forwarded by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the full Senate last week. But last Friday, before they broke for Memorial Day, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), usually a reliable Obama White House ally, put a hold delaying a Senate vote on the nomination until after the week-long recess, apparently at the request of an unidentified constituent with an unspecified, Libya-related claim. The case does not have to do with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland, but officials would not specify what it was regarding.

Gaddafi Throws Tantrum – Assad Incites Intifada

Gaddafi has always been a touch eccentric in his choice of words and extravagant in his posturing and it is obvious he wants to play the puffed up peacock so that Saudi Arabia will bribe him to side with it in a united Arab front against Iran’s growing ascendance to Nuclear Prominence and Shia Revolutionary Power.  This is normal Tribal politics at its most colorful in the Islamic world.

However, the interesting thing about this article is that Syria’s Assad says that he believes militants of the resistance should conduct attacks on Israel to “force” Israel to negotiate.  This is the leader of Syria, defacto exile home of the HQs of roughly 500 militant factions of the PLO and terroristic jihadi Islamic Supremacists of the world, including Hamas and Fatah.  When Assad speaks in such a fashion, he is obviously brokering for support from Saudi Arabia in the form of bribes, which will provide enough incentive for it to break away from Iran’s fold and join Saudi Arabi, which will allow the Muslim World to keep the charade of “peace” while bringing the symbolic Palestinian fighters into line with Saudi Arabian means and ways.  However, let’s look at this puzzle from another angle.

What if Obama said that America was going to pay mercenary forces like Blackwater or bribe Kurdish separatists or Baluchistani rebels to attack Iran to “force” Ayatollah Khameini to negotiate on its Nuclear program?  Let’s put the shoe on the other foot here for a second.  What would the European community say about that?   The entire world would be up in arms over the possibility of a full blown war, right?  So, where is the outrage and condemnation of Assad from the international community for inciting intifada against Israel and violent terroristic death to innocent Israelis?  Will it ever materialize in the MSM?  Is this possibly a double standard?  The Media will be tied up paying attention to the G-20 and Clinton’s handshake with the Iranian Foreign Minister, the rise of Netanyahu in Israel and a host of other situations…this comment of Assad will be conveniently buried by the volume of time.

 

Gary H. Johnson, Jr. (3/31/09, 4:28amEST)

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/world.aspx?ID=BD4A971035
31 March 2009
Angry ‘king of kings’ Gaddafi stalks out of Arab summit
FOREIGN STAFF

Doha
LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi stormed out of an Arab summit yesterday after denouncing the Saudi king and declaring himself “the dean of Arab rulers”.
Gaddafi disrupted the opening Arab League summit in Qatar by taking a microphone and criticising King Abdullah, calling him a “British product and American ally”.
When the Qatari emir tried to silence him, Gaddafi, who is also the African Union chairman, insisted on being allowed to speak. “I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam (leader) of Muslims, and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level,” the Libyan leader said.