Author: Tariq Alhomayed
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat
Date: 2009-04-22
After his first foreign trip as president to Europe, Turkey and Latin America, Barack Obama was forced to justify his words and actions in an effort to prove that he is not weak. In the US, Obama’s opponents criticized him for his repeated apologies saying that the president has begun to beg for popularity in Europe and the Arab and Islamic worlds.
Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy described Obama as ‘weak,’ a description that has been repeated by other Europeans, especially with Obama failure to convince the Europeans regarding the Afghanistan file. As for Latin America, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made the most of what Obama said about wanting to listen to others; he gave Obama a book entitled ‘The Open Veins of Latin America’ in the hope that he might read and learn.
Former US president George W. Bush adopted the idea of spreading democracy worldwide in 2004 after having read ‘The Case for Democracy’ by Israeli author Natan Sharansky. Bush liked the symbolic idea of a soldier representing the dictatorship, pointing a gun for a long time at a prisoner representing the nation, but when his arms began to tire, he lowered his weapon and the prisoner escaped. Bush rejoiced thinking that he had found the solution and rushed to preach democracy.
Is Obama like that? Some of his justifications in response to the criticism he received may help us understand, as he said that even if he failed to convince the Europeans to increase the level of their forces in Afghanistan, he succeeded at increasing America’s popularity in Europe, which could help European leaders adopt the positions of their US ally. This indicates that Bush’s unpopularity is what prevented Europe from supporting Washington on a number of issues, whilst the reality of the situation is quite the contrary. Obama will find that many leaders used Bush as an excuse to wash their hands of any matters that they did not want [to be involved in] and that they will change according to a change of interests.
We have France under Sarkozy striving for a role in Iraq after having been at the forefront of the countries against the alliance that Bush wanted to form to invade Iraq. Here’s Iran, which harbors mutual enmity towards the US because of the Iraqi invasion, negotiating with Washington on Iraq! North Korea has not changed its policy of defying the international community with its nuclear program, just like Iran; in fact Tehran is also challenging Obama today with the case of the imprisoned US-Iranian journalist even though Obama extended a hand to Iran and called for engaging in dialogue with it.
Let us recall the early days of the George W. Bush presidency. After Bush’s victory in the 2000 elections, China held an American spy plane and detained its crew, and in March 2001 China also detained a Chinese researcher who was working at an American university. At the time, the American press accused Bush of being weak and demanded a tough response to China. Also at that time, Bush received a letter from the Saudi monarch King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz (the then Crown Prince) in which he threatened severance of ties if Washington did not take a decisive stand regarding the Palestinian Cause. Immediately afterwards, Bush decided to deliver a speech at the United Nations announcing the two-state project.
But then came the 9/11 attacks and Bush transformed into that angry, belligerent man until he left the White House.
The conclusion is that events are what form a leader. Ronald Reagan for example was not the most popular man but he was the person who brought down Communism. Bill Clinton was very popular but he failed to take heed of the Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden threat and pulled out of Somalia after disturbing images of US soldiers [came to light]. Therefore, it is too early to say whether or not Obama is weak.
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Showing posts with label 9/11. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 9/11. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Provocative Evidence
Author: Dr. Hamad Al-Majid
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat
Date: 2009-04-15
If the US intelligence services wanted to save time and effort in their search for further evidence against those that planned 9/11 attacks they need not look for evidence in the Tora Bora cave system or in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan, nor is this evidence to be found in the possession of a sleeper cell that is suddenly activated and knows dangerous secrets about that serious event, nor even will it be found in documents or videos leaked by the Al Qaeda leadership. This time the evidence is of US origin, and is to be found in the US currency itself, the dollar bill!
Some of those obsessed with the investigation into the 9/11 attacks believe that they have uncovered some of the mystery behind the attack on the $20 bill, which contains an image of the 9/11 attack. How is this possible! All you have to do is fold the bill in three different ways and you will uncover a surprise. Firstly you can fold the $20 bill to reveal an image of the Pentagon on fire. Folding the bill in another way and you can reveal the image of the World Trade Centre burning directly after the 9/11 attack. The final example of this strange phenomenon can be seen when you fold the $20 bill from left to right in the manner of a Japanese hand-fan whereupon the name Osama appears in English. This [connection between 9/11 and the $20 bill] can be concluded by recalling the simple mathematical sum that 9 + 11 = 20.
The 9/11 attacks are connected to other US denomination bill's, indeed you can fold a $5 bill and a $10 bill in the same manner as a $20 bill in order to reveal an image of the Twin Towers prior to the attack on the $5 bill, and an image of the Twin Towers following the attack on the $10. As for the $50 bill, this reveals an image of the Twin Towers whilst they are collapsing. There is another way to fold this currency to reveal an image of the words "American" and "United" – the two airliners that were involved in the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre.
The person who folded up these dollar bills and came up with these theories also twisted his own mind, and the minds of whoever believed in him. These people have become a phenomenon that espouse their strange explanations and interpretations with regards to the 9/11 attack. Previous to the phenomenon of folding-up US currency in connection with the attacks, there were others who attempted to connect the Quran to the 9/11 attacks by taking quotes out of context as well as making connections between the numbering of Quranic verses and the date and details of the 9/11 attacks, to the extent that they claimed the Quran made reference to the name of the street where the attack took place.
Today people emerge with folded-up dollar bills [and look at them] as if they ere reading a newspaper or picture book, rather than a currency exchanged by people. I would not be surprised if in the future others fold-up dollar bills in news ways to reveal the names of the hijackers, or if dollar bills are folded up to produce scenarios of future attacks. Perhaps this folding-up of dollar bills can be applied to other currencies, particularly the Euro, which is the dollar's strongest competitor. I do not know where such obsession will lead.
____________________________
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Source: Asharq Al-Awsat
Date: 2009-04-15
If the US intelligence services wanted to save time and effort in their search for further evidence against those that planned 9/11 attacks they need not look for evidence in the Tora Bora cave system or in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan, nor is this evidence to be found in the possession of a sleeper cell that is suddenly activated and knows dangerous secrets about that serious event, nor even will it be found in documents or videos leaked by the Al Qaeda leadership. This time the evidence is of US origin, and is to be found in the US currency itself, the dollar bill!
Some of those obsessed with the investigation into the 9/11 attacks believe that they have uncovered some of the mystery behind the attack on the $20 bill, which contains an image of the 9/11 attack. How is this possible! All you have to do is fold the bill in three different ways and you will uncover a surprise. Firstly you can fold the $20 bill to reveal an image of the Pentagon on fire. Folding the bill in another way and you can reveal the image of the World Trade Centre burning directly after the 9/11 attack. The final example of this strange phenomenon can be seen when you fold the $20 bill from left to right in the manner of a Japanese hand-fan whereupon the name Osama appears in English. This [connection between 9/11 and the $20 bill] can be concluded by recalling the simple mathematical sum that 9 + 11 = 20.
The 9/11 attacks are connected to other US denomination bill's, indeed you can fold a $5 bill and a $10 bill in the same manner as a $20 bill in order to reveal an image of the Twin Towers prior to the attack on the $5 bill, and an image of the Twin Towers following the attack on the $10. As for the $50 bill, this reveals an image of the Twin Towers whilst they are collapsing. There is another way to fold this currency to reveal an image of the words "American" and "United" – the two airliners that were involved in the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre.
The person who folded up these dollar bills and came up with these theories also twisted his own mind, and the minds of whoever believed in him. These people have become a phenomenon that espouse their strange explanations and interpretations with regards to the 9/11 attack. Previous to the phenomenon of folding-up US currency in connection with the attacks, there were others who attempted to connect the Quran to the 9/11 attacks by taking quotes out of context as well as making connections between the numbering of Quranic verses and the date and details of the 9/11 attacks, to the extent that they claimed the Quran made reference to the name of the street where the attack took place.
Today people emerge with folded-up dollar bills [and look at them] as if they ere reading a newspaper or picture book, rather than a currency exchanged by people. I would not be surprised if in the future others fold-up dollar bills in news ways to reveal the names of the hijackers, or if dollar bills are folded up to produce scenarios of future attacks. Perhaps this folding-up of dollar bills can be applied to other currencies, particularly the Euro, which is the dollar's strongest competitor. I do not know where such obsession will lead.
____________________________
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