Showing posts with label Jonathan Topaz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jonathan Topaz. Show all posts

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Worst prez criticizes second worst

October 09, 2014 Foreign Policy , ISIL 0 Comments
Jimmy Carter: President Obama Blew It On ISIL

Frmr. President Jimmy Carter / AP
By Jonathan Topaz, Oct. 8, 2014, Politico.com

Former President Jimmy Carter is criticizing President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy, saying he has shifting policies and waited too long to take action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

In an interviewed published Tuesday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the 39th president said the Obama administration, by not acting sooner, allowed ISIL to build up its strength.Continue Reading

“[W]e waited too long. We let the Islamic State build up its money, capability and strength and weapons while it was still in Syria,” he said, using an alternate name for the terrorist group. “Then when [ISIL] moved into Iraq, the Sunni Muslims didn’t object to their being there and about a third of the territory in Iraq was abandoned.”

The administration has launched airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria, the group that has swept across much of northern and central Iraq and has released videos of its members beheading two U.S. journalists and two British aid workers.

Read more:  www.politico.com

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Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Lobbies for a lefty

September 24, 2014 Jonathan Topaz , Politico.com 1 Comments
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Why I Can't Resign Now

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
By Jonathan Topaz, Sept. 24, 2014, Politico.com

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is pushing back against suggestions that she should soon retire, saying President Barack Obama would be unable to get a justice like her through the Senate.

“Who do you think President Obama could appoint at this very day, given the boundaries that we have?” the 81-year-old justice told Elle Magazine in an interview excerpt released Tuesday. The wide-ranging interview portrays Ginsburg — seen as a member of the court’s liberal wing — as attuned to the dynamics in Congress and some of the greater political and social discussions in the U.S.

In the interview, she suggested that Senate Republicans would likely block any potential nominee like her.

“If I resign any time this year, he could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court,” the oldest member of the high court said. “[A]nybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided,” later adding that she can “do the job full steam.”

Tuesday’s excerpt focused largely on the court’s conservative shift in recent years and Ginsburg’s disappointment with its rulings on women’s issues.

Read the full story:  www.politico.com

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Monday, June 2, 2014

Criticism Of Bergdahl Deal Mounts --Dems still quiet--for now

June 02, 2014 Afghanistan , Hostage Exchange 0 Comments
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
By Jonathan Topaz, Jun. 2, 2014, Politico.com

The Obama administration on Monday faced a growing backlash against its deal to secure the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, as critics questioned the sergeant’s actions in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama’s use of executive authority to gain his release, and the implications for national security.

The escalating attacks on the deal were given new fuel by fresh reports that Bergdahl may have deserted.

“Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down,” Nathan Bradley Bethea, who served in Bergdahl’s battalion, wrote in a Daily Beast story. Bethea’s report said Bergdahl disappeared from his battalion in the middle of the night.

CNN cited a member of the soldier’s platoon who said he was “pissed off” at Bergdahl. “Bowe Bergdahl deserted during a time of war and his fellow Americans lost their lives searching for him,” the sergeant said.

On Monday, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon added that he felt the president “broke the law” under the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act by not informing Congress 30 days in advance about the release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

“My perception is, and I think the eyes of many, he broke the law by not informing Congress 30 days before,” McKeon said of Obama on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.” “You just had Ambassador Rice, she said they’ve been working on this for three years. She said Congress has been informed of this along the way. I don’t know who they were talking to. I have not been a part of this, and I’m the chairman of the committee.” McKeon was referring to National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who defended the legality of the administration’s actions on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

McKeon said that his committee will hold hearings on the issue, saying he hopes Democrats as well as Republicans will help investigate whether the White House violated the NDAA. “This is not a partisan issue. It’s just a matter of the law and breaking the law and not informing the Congress according to the law,” he said.

On the Senate side, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) requesting an immediate hearing on the deal.

“While I appreciate that an American was released from captivity, this decision by the Obama administration has serious implications for our future national security,” he wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News. Graham is a member of the committee.

McCain, echoing Graham, supports a hearing on the deal.

“It’s worthy of a hearing,” McCain told reporters. “But, it’s done.”

Read the full story:  www.politico.com

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