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Haas, 2xBush state department, current president of CFR, president-elect's designate. "[Obama] supports low-level contacts with Hamas provided there is a ceasefire in place and a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation emerges." This is the recommendation of Martin Indyk in a Foreign Affairs article, notes the reporter.
Clown #1: "This is going to be an administration that is committed to negotiating with critical parties on critical issues." Hopefully, this person is not party to the issues that Indyk refuses to issue, critically.
Clemons: "Secret envoys, multilateral six-party talk-like approaches. The total isolation of Hamas that we promulgated under Bush is going to end." Epic fail.
Clown #2: "It is highly unlikely that they will be public about it."
Miller: "We [Obama administrateion] will be perceived to be weak and feckless if we are perceived to be on the margins, unable to persuade the Israelis, unable to work with the international community to end this." On the margins, meaning "low-level" or "clandestine" muscle of reconcilliation? This is a lonely, thankless job. Mercifully for America, Barry is photogenic in 4C and B/W. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Love this headline: Obama names Panetta, Blair as top spymasters | Reuters | 10 Jan 2009 (3,409)
Panetta and Blair did not come up through the ranks of intelligence agencies, and their nominations reflect Obama's determination to restore a U.S. reputation battered by accusations of torturing suspected terrorists and secret wiretapping of Americans' overseas phone calls. "To be truly secure we must adhere to our values as vigilantly as we protect our safety, with no exceptions," Obama said in announcing his picks. "Under my administration the United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals," he said. Obama pledged to ensure that U.S. intelligence is accurate and untainted by politics, after the spy agencies failed to prevent the September 11 attacks and wrongly concluded that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
"To be truly secure we must adhere to our values as vigilantly as we protect our safety, with no exceptions," Obama said in announcing his picks.
"Under my administration the United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals," he said.
Obama pledged to ensure that U.S. intelligence is accurate and untainted by politics, after the spy agencies failed to prevent the September 11 attacks and wrongly concluded that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
OK, Wrong Blair. But I ask you: What better cover for clandestine diplomacy in the EU than President of the EU? Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
