The US ambassador to the EU has brushed aside speculation that the ascendance of China or confusion arising from the Lisbon Treaty have undermined the special relationship between the two sides.

Focusing on the EU’s importance in the areas of security and crisis-relief, the ambassador, William E. Kennard, told EUobserver in an interview: “Anytime anything dramatic happens in the world …the world looks to what the US and the EU are going to do.”

“We have with the EU and its member states a shared history and a shared sense of values that we don’t have with any other large bloc of people,” he said. “The US and the EU collectively represent 800 million democratically-elected people, and so when issues arise, whether it’s of human rights violations or the need to bring stability to troubled parts of the world, whether it’s Afghanistan or Pakistan or the Middle East, the EU is our logical partner.”

The diplomat underlined President Barack Obama’s belief in multilateralism and progress in ties with China and Russia. But he indicated that the level of trust between the EU and US exceeds what it has with the emerging powers.

“We don’t share the same culture, history or values with Russia,” he said. “It’s a different category altogether.”

Mr Kennard arrived in Brussels in January at an awkward moment. The US at the Copenhagen climate summit in December clinched a last-minute deal on emissions with Brazil, South Africa, India and China, leaving the EU out of the room.

In February, the Spanish EU presidency learned via the media that President Obama planned to skip an upcoming summit. A US spokesman at the time said Washington did not know who was in charge in Europe following passage of the Lisbon Treaty. The European Parliament subsequently compounded unease by voting down a transatlantic pact on counter-terrorism, the so-called “Swift” agreement.

The US ambassador laid part of the responsibility for the summit debacle on Spain: “We had never committed to a summit and we had never told the Spanish government that we were coming to Madrid in May. I think there may have been an assumption that we were,” he said.

He also hinted that the meeting was a diplomatic nicety rather than a venue for pressing decisions. “All of our political leaders have incredible demands on their time, we have to be careful in deploying their time to make sure there are defined outcomes,” Mr Kennard said.

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President Bashar al-Assad reviewed on Wednesday with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns bilateral relations between the two countries and means for improving them.

President al-Assad and Burns discussed the practical steps taken in this regard and the need for continuing constructive and serious dialogue based on mutual respect and common interests to benefit both countries.

The meeting also dealt with the latest developments in the region, particularly in Iraq and the occupied Palestinian lands and the stalled peace process, with President affirming the importance of a US role in the peace process that supports the Turkish role, stressing the need for the United States to adopt polices that push Israel to accept the requirements of peace.

In turn, Burns said that US President Barack Obama wishes to enhance communication and coordination between the US and Syria regarding various issues, underlining Syria’s pivotal role in the region.

The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Fayssal Mikdad, the delegation accompanying Burns, the Syrian Ambassador in Washington and the Director of the America Department at the Foreign Ministry.

Later, Minister al-Moallem held a meeting with Burns.

In a statement to the press, Burns said “I’m pleased to back in Damascus… I’m here to convey President Obama’s continous interest in building better relations with Syria based upon of mutual interests and mutual respect.”

Burns added that he held extensive and fruitful talks with President al-Assad and discussed points of disagreement frankly and established points for mutual ground to build upon.

He affirmed that Syria plays an important role in the Middle East, saying “this is the moment in which both Syria and the United States to further explore ways in which to cooperate .”

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Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has warned Barack Obama, the US president, that there will be further attacks on the United States unless he takes steps to resolve the Palestinian situation.

In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera on Sunday, the world’s most wanted man also praised the Nigerian accused of a failed attempt to blow up an airliner heading for Detroit on Christmas Day.

“The message I want to convey to you through the plane of the hero Umar Farouk [Abdulmutallab], reaffirms a previous message that the heroes of 9/11 conveyed to you,” Bin Laden said.

“America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.

“America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.

“Therefore, with God’s will, our attacks on you will continue as long as you continue to support Israel,” bin Laden said.

“If it was possible to carry our messages to you by words we wouldn’t have carried them to you by planes.”

The Obama administration said intelligence analysts had not confirmed that the al-Qaeda leader’s voice was on the tape.

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US soldiers stand guard at a Port-au-Prince hospital (Picture: AFP/GETTY)

The temporary yet indefinite re-colonization of Haiti began last Wednesday morning when the first CNN crews landed in Port-au-Prince, led by their ‘general’ Anderson Cooper and the ubiquitous medical reporter Sanjay Gupta.

After only a few hours, the network that made the 24-hour news cycle possible began beaming a stream of pain and misery back to the United States. An infinite series of images, painful and shocking, left CNN’s viewers with the urge to express their solidarity… at all costs.

From that moment on, Haiti became a ‘real’ event within the American imaginary. It had metamorphosed into a ‘cause celebre,’ persuading Barack Obama, a president already consumed with healthcare reform, the war in Afghanistan, terrorism in Yemen, etc., to publicly address the Haiti disaster three times in one day, promising $100 million in aid and the arrival of the US Army to coordinate the relief efforts.

US Ambassador to Haiti Ken Marten began coordinating the logistics for the US military’s arrival. Meanwhile, Google’s detailed satellite images were updated, showing the access routes from Port-au-Prince’s port and airport to the most afflicted disaster areas completely obstructed by rubble.

In Washington, D.C., Obama assembled a task force 250-strong of men and women representing all facets of the relief effort, from the Marines to the Red Cross.

Yet, the relief and rescue operations were delayed a half-day while Obama sought to reach Haitian President Rene Preval, whose residence and office were also ‘pancaked’ by the 7.0 tremors. Then, on Friday, upon finally reaching President Preval, Obama asked him to sign a document which conferred total control of Port-au-Prince’s airport to the US military and conceded permission for America’s relief efforts to get underway.

This, at least, is what the public was told. But the document exchanged between Presidents Obama and Preval must have contained several more details that have been withheld from public view; clauses regarding the rules of engagement of the Marines, sent in by the hundreds, to protect the engineers who are, to this moment, busy clearing roads and digging through the rubble.

The Marines, once called upon, shoot. This is their only task. During their 2004 intervention in Haiti, after the fall of the populist priest President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Marines set up and manned roadblocks throughout the country. Upon approaching the checkpoints, the Haitians attempted to back up and search for another, less obtrusive access point to their destination. And the Marines, unused to the local predilection for anarchy, duly shot at them. After the first 4 casualties, the Haitians learned their lesson and waited patiently in line at each checkpoint.

A few days ago, the first US Coast Guard ship reached Haiti from the US base in Guantanamo, Cuba. An aircraft carrier is also expected, along with 6,000 Navy personnel, and 50 helicopters, and, of course, a hospital ship. Everything that we are used to seeing since D-Day and beyond is expected from the formidable logistical machine that is the US military.

The history of relations between the US and Haiti dates back to the American Revolution, when Haiti was a French colony and was thus an ally of the American revolutionaries. But when Haiti eventually declared its independence on January 1^st, 1804, Thomas Jefferson, fearing that the Haitian uprising would inspire American slaves, issued an embargo on the country that lasted until 1867.

In 1915, during the throes of the Great War, in which the European powers slaughtered each other while racking up enormous debts with the USA, Washington, D.C. took advantage of its role as nascent power and expanded its sphere of influence in the Caribbean by occupying Haiti. With the excuse that German submarines would find refuge in Haiti’s ports and would be assisted by Haiti’s merchant class (which was largely of German origin), the American government established a military government ruled by the US Marines that lasted 17 years.

But the United States militaristic obsession with Haiti did not stop there. In 1994, a second US ‘invasion’ of the island took place under then-President Bill Clinton’s watch. Clinton’s intervention was to ostensibly return the democratically elected President Aristide back to power after he was ousted in a coup.

Now, the United States is once again brought into the Haitian ‘theater of tragedy’ whereby it can directly appeal to the Haitian people without involving the impotent, corrupt, and disarrayed Preval government.  In the past 10 years we have seen over $3 billion in international aid reach Haiti without one job being created, without the country’s infrastructure being reinforced, without any coherent development plan being established. Everything remained as it was before and the earthquake served only to expose the failure of Haiti’s 206 years of independence. Following the Haiti’s impressive revolt, its liberation from the chains of European domination, its newfound leaders cast the population into a system of income inequality that pervades up until today. While Europe fumes at America’s logistical ‘invasion’ of the island, declares America’s relief effort an attack on Haiti’s sovereignty, the European’s have ultimately demonstrated the total inefficiency of their political correctness. With its institutional infrastructure in tatters and the Presidential Palace in ruins, Haiti finally has a chance to change course. And it can only be with America’s help.

Piero Longo is a former journalist and editor of AmericaOggi. He lives in Haiti.

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Anger built Saturday at Haiti’s US-controlled main airport, where aid flights were still being turned away and poor coordination continued to hamper the relief effort four days on.

“Let’s take over the runway,” shouted one voice. “We need to send a message to (US President Barack) Obama,” cried another.

Control remained in the hands of US forces, who face criticism for the continued disarray at the overwhelmed airfield.

Dozens of French citizens and dual Haitian-French nationals crowded the airport Saturday seeking to be evacuated after Tuesday’s massive 7.0 earthquake, which leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince.

But at the last minute, a plane due to take them to the French island of Guadeloupe was prevented from landing, leaving them to sleep on the tarmac, waiting for a way out.

“They’re repatriating the Americans and not anyone else,” said Charles Misteder, 50. “The American monopoly has to end. They are dominating us and not allowing us to return home.”

The crowd accused American forces, who were handed control of the airport by Haitian authorities, of monopolizing the airfield’s single runway to evacuate their own citizens.

The US embassy denied it was putting the evacuation of the approximately 40,000 to 45,000 American citizens in the country first.

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Barack Obama and his dramatic ascent to power has inspired a raft of books and articles. Now a German musical is set to pay an all-singing, all-dancing tribute to the world’s most powerful man. Hope! will soon premiere in Frankfurt.

“I had the initial idea right at the start of Obama’s electoral campaign,” American writer and composer Randall Hutchins told Der Spiegel. “I found the atmosphere exciting and that was my inspiration. People hoped change would result in a better life. It was a beautiful, very social time.”

As well as charting Obama’s political career, the plot follows a group of residents in an apartment-sharing community. There is a politically disillusioned unemployed Puerto Rican, an ultra conservative widow of German origin and a committed African-American political activist.

During the course of the performance, they all become infected by Obama’s message of change. “People from a variety of backgrounds and political camps are united by their hope for a new start,” a press release about the show explains.

Read more here.

France has closed its embassy in Yemen after threats from a local branch of Al-Qaeda, the French foreign ministry said Monday, following a similar move by the United States and Britain.

“On January 3, our ambassador decided to no longer authorise public access to the premises of our diplomatic mission,” spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters.

He said French citizens in the country had been warned to remain vigilant and to limit their movements.

Yemeni forces have tightened security around the airport and foreign embassies in the capital Sanaa amid fears of strikes by an Al-Qaeda branch linked to a botched attack on a US airliner.
The US and British embassies in Sanaa have been shut since Sunday for what they said were reasons of security.

US President Barack Obama has accused the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) of arming and training a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day.

AQAP claimed responsibility for the failed attack and called for strikes on embassies in Yemen.

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Britain pledged Tuesday to reform a peculiar legal power that lets judges order the arrest of visiting politicians and generals – a threat currently focused on Israeli visitors that, one day, might be invoked against Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin.

Lawyers working with Palestinian activists in recent years have sought the arrest of senior Israeli civilian and military figures under terms of universal jurisdiction. This ill-defined legal concept empowers judges to issue arrest warrants for visiting officials accused of war crimes in a foreign conflict.

Their latest target is Tzipi Livni, Israel’s former foreign minister and current opposition leader, who staunchly defends Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s government confirmed Tuesday that she canceled a planned London trip this month after her office received news of a secretly issued arrest warrant awaiting her arrival.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband later announced that Britain would no longer tolerate legal harassment of Israeli officials in this fashion.

Speaking after meeting Israel’s London ambassador Tuesday night, Miliband said the British law permitting judges to issue arrest warrants against foreign dignitaries without any prior knowledge or advice by a prosecutor must be reviewed and reformed.

Miliband said the British government was determined that arrest threats against visitors of Livni’s stature would not happen again.

“Israel is a strategic partner and a close friend of the United Kingdom. We are determined to protect and develop these ties,” Miliband said. “Israeli leaders – like leaders from other countries – must be able to visit and have a proper dialogue with the British government.”

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Activists are expressing disappointment with President Barack Obama’s plans for the Aids treatment programme in Africa, charging that he has fallen short of the achievements of his predecessor, George W. Bush, reports The East African.

“President Obama has all but failed to fulfil his commitments to wage an aggressive battle against global Aids,” a coalition of Aids-focused groups declared last week, assigning him a grade of D+ for his performance to date.

Gregg Gonsalves, a leading US anti-Aids campaigner, warned an audience in New York last week, “I am about to say something shocking: I miss George W Bush.”

In many respects, Gonsalves continued, Bush was a terrible president, but “he was exceptional in one. The President’s Emergency Programme for Aids Relief (Pepfar), despite its flaws, saved millions of lives around the world.”

Obama, by contrast, is not providing the resources needed to sustain the rate of growth in the number of HIV-positive Africans who receive ant-viral treatments through Pepfar.

That trend prompted Dr Peter Mugyenyi, director of a Uganda Aids clinic, to express fear that “the carnage of Aids will once again surge and the obvious success we have seen of Pepfar may begin to be reversed.”

Since its inception in 2004, Pepfar has provided anti-viral treatments to nearly 2.5 million people with Aids.

The programme targets 15 poor countries, 12 of them in black Africa.

Kenya ranks as the single-biggest beneficiary of this aspect of Pepfar, with close to 300,000 Kenyans receiving anti-viral drugs as of September 30.

Nigeria has the world’s second-highest number of Pepfar treatment recipients: 286,000. Some 197,000 Tanzanians are getting anti-viral medications through the programme, as are 175,000 Ugandans.

But under Obama’s recently announced five-year Pepfar strategy, the average annual rate of growth would slow to 320,000.

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