A Somali national, who has US residency, was arrested in Canada on Sunday on a Mexico-bound flight just before it took off. US intelligence believes he was trying to go to Mexico with the intention of participating in some sort of terrorist operation in the US Southwest. Read More
Separate from everything to do with what happened in the water off Gaza yesterday, the implications for Israel’s relationship with Turkey seem profound and perhaps irremediable. Allies can make up after almost any coming to blows if they want to. But that’s the key. This isn’t the first blow up in Israel-Turkey relations. Turkish opposition to the Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead) has been at the center of the dispute going back to 2008. But even that doesn’t really fully explain the decline in relations. Read More
The public polls on President Obama’s handling of the Gulf Oil Spill are piling up. And they show building public unhappiness with the president.
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People often forget that the blockade of Gaza is not maintained only by Israel but by Egypt too along the southern border. And I had seen that they were opening the border in response to the Flotilla incident. But TPM Reader KL just pointed out to me that an official told Reuters that the border was being opened for an “unlimited time.” Now, a lot can get lost in translation. And talk, especially talk not on the record and in the face of hostile domestic public opinion, is cheap. But a commonsense interpretation of that would be that the opening of the Gaza/Egypt border is permanent. Or at least of indefinite duration. If that’s the case, that’s a very big deal.
House Republicans are re-rolling out their Health Care Reform repeal bill which not only reopens the “donut hole”, un-insures 29 million people and adds almost $75 billion to the federal deficit.
It looks like Rep. Kirk (R) is a chronic offender when it comes to exaggerating his military record. Not just about that one award.
Former televangelist Ted Haggard says he’ll make a “big announcement” about his future career path at a press conference tomorrow at 12:30.
Will Folks, former press guy for both Gov. Mark Sanford and now would-be governor Nikki Haley, has roiled South Carolina politics for the last couple weeks by claiming he had an affair with Haley — a charge she vigorously and categorically denies. Now Sanford, admitted adulterer and hiker of the Appalachian Trail, has come out in support of Haley in the dispute.
Every four years the administration releases a new “National Security Strategy.” That’s where President Bush, for instance, rolled out ‘preemption’ as the cornerstone of his approach in 2002. After a little delay, the Obama administration just released its own. And there’s something in there that hasn’t gotten a lot of notice: a new focus on homegrown terrorism as an emerging threat in US counter-terrorism policy.
This puts together the Nidal Hasan shooting at Fort Hood, the recent case of Faisal Shahzad, the short-circuited plot of Najubullah Zazi and others. There’s been a lot of talk about this on the right as an emerging trend. But now the Obama administration is taking note of it too. Justin Elliott has the story.