This Week in the World Affairs Brief:

OBAMA CLAIMS TO NARROW THE FIGHT AGAINST TERROR

Speaking at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington DC, Obama claimed he will implement “new restraints” on targeted killings by drones and narrow the scope of the war on terror from a general global war to only targeting specific threats that directly threaten the United States. Of course this is just more political theater meant to appease the growing anti-war sentiment in America; nothing will change given the generalities in his remarks that allow plenty of leeway. Even worse, these statements give the Republican leadership the excuse to put themselves in opposition to the President by favoring even more warmongering rather than less—thus leading in the wrong direction. You can request a one-time free sample of the briefs by sending an email to editor@worldaffairsbrief.com.

Also:

  • Plans to Create a National Police Force
  • Russia Wants More out of Next Disarmament Treaty
  • Military Intervention in Syria Getting Closer
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Daily News

Boy Scout Leaders Vote to Allow Gay Youth

posted by askousen - Friday, May 24 2013
The Boy Scouts of America has decided to allow gay youth to openly join its ranks, reversing a longstanding ban. A majority of the 1,400 Scouts leaders gathered for their annual meeting voted in support a proposal floated last month by Scouts officials to open Scouting's membership to gay youth, but not gay adults in staff or volunteer leadership roles. — WSJ

Senate Votes Unanimously Toward War Against Iran

posted by askousen - Friday, May 24 2013
Posted by Daniel McAdams on May 22, 2013 07:44 PM Today the US Senate voted unanimously in favor of a Lindsey Graham resolution, S.Res.65, which "[s]trongly support(s) the full implementation of United States and international sanctions on Iran and urg[es] the President to continue to strengthen enforcement of sanctions legislation." The legislation, as expected from a Lindsey Graham product, is full of misstatements, historical revisionism, and war-drum-beating hyperbole. Particularly revolting is the distortion and lies about Iran's not being in compliance with IAEA nuclear safeguards requirements and the irony of Graham's using Iran's refusal to implement UN resolutions as evidence of its rogue status. — Lew Rockwell.com

Scout Oath

posted by askousen - Thursday, May 23 2013
On my honor I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. — BSA

OBAMA LIMITS USE OF U.S. DRONE STRIKES, OFFERS STEPS TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO

posted by askousen - Thursday, May 23 2013
...Faced with criticism about the morality of using unmanned aerial vehicles to wage war in distant lands, Obama said the United States will only use drone strikes when a threat is imminent, a nuanced change from the previous policy of launching strikes against a significant threat. "To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance," Obama said. Under a new presidential guidance signed on Wednesday, Obama said the Defense Department will take the lead in launching drones, as opposed to the current practice of the CIA taking charge. — Yahoo

And the winner is - Khamenei

posted by askousen - Thursday, May 23 2013
In 2009, 475 candidates registered to run for Iran's presidency. Only four were approved by the Guardian Council - the all-powerful, vetting clerical committee. This year, no fewer than 686 registered for the upcoming June 14 elections. Eight were approved. Among them, one won't find the two who are really controversial; former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, aka "The Shark" - essentially a pragmatic conservative - and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, adviser and right-hand man to outgoing President Mahmud Ahmadinejad are both out. Those who will run are not exactly a stellar bunch — Asia Times

The Government Wants A Backdoor Into Your Online Communications

posted by askousen - Thursday, May 23 2013
According to the New York Times, President Obama is "on the verge of backing" a proposal by the FBI to introduce legislation dramatically expanding the reach of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA. CALEA forces telephone companies to provide backdoors to the government so that it can spy on users after obtaining court approval, and was expanded in 2006 to reach Internet technologies like VoIP. — Activist Post

In first public acknowledgement, Holder says 4 Americans died in US drone strikes

posted by askousen - Thursday, May 23 2013
The Obama administration publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that U.S. drone strikes have killed four American citizens since 2009, including the previously undisclosed death of a North Carolina resident who left the United States for Pakistan and was later indicted on federal terrorism charges. Attorney General Eric Holder, in a letter to congressional leaders and chairman of key congressional committees made public on the eve of what was billed as a major counterterrorism speech by President Barack Obama, also confirmed the deaths in drone attacks in Yemen of three other Americans that already had been widely reported: those of radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki , his teenage son, Abd al-Rahmn Anwar al-Awlaki; and Samir Khan, the American who ran al Qaeda's web-based propaganda magazine Inspire. Previously the Obama administration had only acknowledged the senior Awlaki's killing and refused to publicly confirm or deny reports of the other deaths. — NBC News

Iran presidential campaign begins without two big names

posted by askousen - Thursday, May 23 2013
Ira'’s conservatives, who on Tuesday saw the two main moderate threats to their dominance barred from running in next month's presidential election, face a new challenge: persuading shocked and skeptical Iranians to turn out to vote. With the field of hopefuls clear, the mostly conservative nominees whose candidacies were approved by Iran's Guardian Council officially launched their campaigns Wednesday, apparently free from the challenges of the most talked-about candidates, two-time former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and the top aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ­Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. — Washington Post

IRS tea-party bloodbath continues in Congress, as evidence emerges that IRS's own internal probe end

posted by askousen - Thursday, May 23 2013
Tempers flared in a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, with members on both sides of the aisle castigating the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups with special scrutiny, and then hiding the practice from Congress. Rep. Darrel Issa, the committee's chairman, said that the committee learned just yesterday that the IRS completed its own investigation a year before a Treasury Department Inspector General report was completed. — Daily Mail

Not My Fault, Treasury secretary distances himself from IRS scandal

posted by askousen - Wednesday, May 22 2013
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew attempted to distance his department from the Internal Revenue Service's controversial actions at a Senate hearing on Tuesday morning, despite acknowledging that the Treasury oversees the IRS. Lew said he did not know any details of the inspector general's investigation into inappropriate targeting of conservative nonprofit groups before the final report was released, although he confessed that the inspector general alerted him to it on March 15. — Free Beacon

Senate panel OKs tax-welfare benefits for newly legal immigrants

posted by askousen - Wednesday, May 22 2013
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to allow illegal immigrants who get legal status to begin collecting tax-welfare payments, as the panel spent a fourth day working through amendments to the massive immigration bill and party-line splits began to emerge. In one major change, the committee voted 17-1 to make a third drunken-driving conviction a deportable offense for the newly legalized immigrants if at least one of those offenses occurs after they are approved for legal status. But immigrant-rights groups called that a rollback of due-process rights for the immigrants and said a drunken-driving incident shouldn't cost someone a chance at citizenship. — Washington Times

'Fast and Furious' Scandal Returns to Haunt Obama

posted by askousen - Wednesday, May 22 2013
Fast and Furious is back. As if the Obama Administration needed an additional problem, the U.S. Justice Department inspector general said Monday that one of the department’s politically appointed officials retaliated against a whistleblower by leaking derogatory information to a Fox News (NWS) television producer. — Paul M. Barrett/Business Week

Tax official at center of scandal won't testify: lawyer

posted by askousen - Wednesday, May 22 2013
Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a scandal about the targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny, plans to assert her constitutional right not to answer questions from a congressional committee on Wednesday. "She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course," Lerner's attorney, William Taylor, wrote on Monday to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that is holding hearings into the IRS scandal. — Reuters

IRS official refuses to testify in Tea Party probe

posted by askousen - Wednesday, May 22 2013
The IRS official responsible for tax exemptions refused to testify to a House oversight panel investigating the agency's treatment of conservative groups Wednesday. Citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Lois Lerner would not answer questions about how the IRS developed the "be on the lookout" list for Tea Party groups, what she did when she discovered it, and why she failed to tell Congress about it when asked directly. — USA Today

FBI says man shot dead while being questioned about Boston bombings

posted by askousen - Wednesday, May 22 2013
...The FBI said in a statement that a special agent, "acting on the imminent threat posed by the individual, responded with deadly force. The individual was killed and the special agent was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries." It said the shooting occurred in Orlando, Florida, while the special agent and other law enforcement agents were interviewing the man about the blasts that killed three people and injured 264 others at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. — Reuters

Bin Laden Corpse Photos Can Be Kept Secret, Court Rules

posted by askousen - Tuesday, May 21 2013
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today rejected arguments by Judicial Watch Inc., a conservative litigation group, that the Central Intelligence Agency failed to show that releasing images of bin Laden's body - specifically those showing it cleaned and prepared for burial - would harm national security or reveal classified intelligence strategies. — Bloomberg

Chinese hackers who breached Google gained access to sensitive data, U.S. officials say

posted by askousen - Tuesday, May 21 2013
Chinese hackers who breached Google's servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about U.S. surveillance targets, according to current and former government officials. The breach appears to have been aimed at unearthing the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives in the United States who may have been under surveillance by American law enforcement agencies. — Washington Post

Senate Panel Approves Even More Stringent Biometric Measures

posted by askousen - Tuesday, May 21 2013
Illegal immigration is a hot-button issue that genuinely affects many communities and the motivation to do something about it is understandable. However, anti-immigration supporters may be playing right into Big Brother's hands by being tricked into supporting the hi-tech enslavement of themselves. Some have referred to the sweeping immigration reform bill in Congress as a "Trojan Horse for Biometrics." These systems are a clear indication that illegal immigration is being used to put the final touches on the full spectrum surveillance grid in America. And, shockingly, politicians are making the immigration reform bill more stringent instead of less, apparently fueled by anti-immigration zealots. — Eric Blair/Activist Post

6 Brave Govt. Whistleblowers Charged Under the Espionage Act by Obama's Administration

posted by askousen - Tuesday, May 21 2013
The Obama administration has been carrying out an unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers, particularly on those who have divulged information that relates to national security. The Espionage Act, enacted during the first World War to punish Americans who aided the enemy, had only been used three times in its history to try government officials accused of leaking classified information — until the Obama administration. Since 2009, the administration has used the act to prosecute six government officials. Meet the whistleblowers... — General Strike USA

Hezbollah suffers big losses in Syria battle: activists

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
...Syrian opposition sources and state media gave widely differing accounts of Sunday's ferocious clashes in Qusair, long used by rebels as a supply route from the nearby Lebanese border to the provincial capital Homs. Hezbollah has not commented. The air and tank assault on the strategic town of 30,000 people appeared to be part of a campaign by Assad's forces to consolidate their grip on Damascus and secure links between the capital and government strongholds in the Alawite coastal heartland via the contested central city of Homs. — Reuters

North Korean pirates seize Chinese hostages, demand a ransom

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
The Chinese embassy in North Korea is "working on" securing the release of the crew of a Chinese fishing boat held by unidentified armed North Koreans, who are reportedly seeking a ransom. The Associated Press reports that, according to the ship owner Yu Xuejun, the Liaoning-based boat was seized on May 5 by kidnappers demanding 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom for the 16 crew members' safe return. — CSM

The IRS's Job Is To Violate Our Liberties

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
"What do you expect when you target the President?" This is what an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent allegedly said to the head of a conservative organization that was being audited after calling for the impeachment of then-President Clinton. Recent revelations that IRS agents gave "special scrutiny" to organizations opposed to the current administration's policies suggest that many in the IRS still believe harassing the President's opponents is part of their job. — Ron Paul/The Free Foundation

Amnesty Opposition Grows

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
The union representing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials will officially oppose the proposed Senate immigration reform legislation on Monday, according to an advance statement obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. — Free Beacon

Elite Gather on Gated Island for Secret Meeting

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
As reported by local media, billionaires are gathering on the island of Kiawah, located near South Carolina. The story broke on May 10, but the meeting was reported to have started on the 8th. "Suspicion was raised when nearly 20 very expensive jets were seen lined up at the Charleston International Airport on Johns Island," reported WBTW. The meeting is reportedly being led by Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The public has been kept away from the hotel which is hosting the meeting. Other reported attendees include Michael Bloomberg of New York, Oprah Winfrey and Billionaire Warren Buffet. The potential Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush is also reported to be attending. — Black Listed News

Assad's message

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
...His interview sends multiple messages to all parties involved in the peace efforts, but its crux is this: he is unwilling to step down. Whether his enemies agree or not, Assad has also spoken some truth. He said that a peace deal is impossible due to a continuing lack of unity among the myriad rebel groups, meaning that opposition leaders would be unable to implement any ceasefire measures, such as surrendering arms. "They are different groups and bands, not dozens but hundreds. They are a mixture and each group has its local leader. And who can unify thousands of people? We can't discuss a timetable with a party if we don't know who they are" — The Peninsula

Obama's Counsel Told of IRS Audit Findings Weeks Ago

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
The White House's chief lawyer learned weeks ago that an audit of the Internal Revenue Service likely would show that agency employees inappropriately targeted conservative groups, a senior White House official said Sunday. That disclosure has prompted a debate over whether the president should have been notified at that time. In the week of April 22, the Office of the White House Counsel and its head, Kathryn Ruemmler, were told by Treasury Department attorneys that an inspector general's report was nearing completion, the White House official said. In that conversation, Ms. Ruemmler learned that "a small number of line IRS employees had improperly scrutinized certain…organizations by using words like 'tea party' and 'patriot,' " the official said. — WSJ

North Korea fires short-range missiles for two days in a row

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast on Sunday, a day after launching three of these missiles, a South Korean news agency said, ignoring calls for restraint from Western powers. — First Post

Fears grow of clash between Israel and Syria

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
Fears about a possible escalation of violence between Israel and Syria grew Sunday amid renewed Israeli threats to destroy Syrian weapons caches and Syria's warnings of retaliation. After decades of relative calm along the two nations' borders, some Israeli officials say tensions with Syria have reached one of the highest points since the 1973 Yom Kippur war. — LA Times

Hezbollah takes fight to anti-Assad rebels as Syria's war spills into Lebanon

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
Hezbollah launched a major offensive in support of the Assad regime today, with fighters from the Lebanese militant group playing their most significant role yet in Syria's two-year-old civil war. Opposition activists claim Hezbollah fighters, who were supporting regular Syrian troops, stormed the rebel-held town of Qusair, only six miles from the Lebanese border. They fired multiple mortar rounds and launched rocket-propelled grenades in an attack that witnesses say killed at least 32 people. — UK Independent

Benjamin Netanyahu threatens more Israeli strikes on Syria

posted by askousen - Monday, May 20 2013
Benjamin Netanyahu raised the prospect of further Israeli strikes on Syria today, amid claims that Bashar al-Assad's regime has installed high-tech weapons aimed at hitting Tel Aviv. — UK Telegraph