The International Criminal Court at The Hague is a pariah in the world of Justice and International Law; those who work for it are traitors to their cause, the Institution itself is an insult to every fibre of civilisation and a knife in the back of the notion that the law prevails and is applied without bias.

Die Staatschefs der Afrikanischen Union (AU) haben sich bei ihrem Gipfeltreffen in Äquatorialguinea auf einen neuen Friedensplan für Libyen unter Ausschluss von Machthaber Muammar el Gaddafi verständigt.

In der ostlibyschen Stadt Bengasi haben sich heute, wie ein Photo von Associated Press zeigt, kaum mehr Tausend Anhänger der von der NATO unterstützten libyschen Contras zum Freitagsgebet versammelt. In der libyschen Hauptstadt Tripolis fand heute hingegen eine Sympathie-Kundgebung für den libyschen Revolutionsführer Muammar Gaddafi statt.

Der haushaltspolitischer Sprecher der SPD-Fraktion, Carsten Schneider, erklärte, es mache ihn „sprachlos“, dass Schäuble die FMS für politische Zwecke nutze. „Um die mickrige Beteiligung der deutschen Banken aufzupeppen, zwingt der Bundesfinanzminister die Abwicklungsanstalt, sich mit zusätzlichen Krediten an dieser freiwilligen Aktion zu beteiligen“, sagte er.

Dabei sei die FMS eine Einrichtung des Bundes, für die der Steuerzahler haften müsse. Ihre Aufgabe sei es, alte Risiken abzuwickeln und nicht neue einzugehen. „Außerdem wird das Parlament mit diesem zusätzlichen Kredit, für den der Bund am Ende haftet, umgangen“, so Schneider weiter.

July started on a positive note for U.S. stocks with Wall Street notching its fifth day of gains on Friday after a surprising jump in manufacturing data eased concerns about a tepid economic recovery.

President Bashar Assad and his allies “know what they have to do,” Clinton said at a conference on international democracy in Lithuania.

jetzt schert ausgerechnet der Autor der Holocaust-Dokumentation „Shoa“ aus der Anti-Gaddafi-Fronde aus, obwohl Lanzmann doch eine gemeinsame Petition mitunterschrieben hatte. Doch für Claude Lanzmann, dem als früherem Résistance-Kämpfer schwerlich der Vorwurf der Feigheit und Unentschlossenheit zu machen ist, haben sich die Dinge drei Monate nach Beginn des Nato-Luftkrieges verhängnisvoll entwickelt: Der Schutz der Zivilbevölkerung in Bengasi rechtfertigt nicht das Bombardement von Tripolis.

“One of our biggest mistakes was that we delayed buying new weapons, especially from Russia, and delayed building a strong army. We thought Europeans were our friends; our mistake was to be tolerant with our enemies”.

Die griechische Regierung hat es pro-palästinensischen Aktivisten untersagt, mit ihren Schiffen gen Gaza auszulaufen. Die Aktivisten wollen sich nicht aufhalten lassen.

(16.06.) The news from yesterday’s alliance of 12 parties with the Muslim Brotherhood for a unified election front and a single candidate list came as a surprise to many…

The Problem with such an alliance is twofold. The first one is that it gives the MB too much power and influence over the next elections, providing them with 3 possible scenarios , all of them good for their purposes:

Scenario 1: If the parties trust them, and they choose to betray the parties like they did in 2005 with tagamo3 and Alwafd, then they singlehandedly could eliminate all those parties from the next parliament and have more say on the constitution than anyone feels comfortable with;

Scenario 2: If the parties trust them, and they deliver voter support, then those parties now become dependent on MB support, which means the MB will effectively control them to do their bidding if they wish to get re-elected again;

and Scenario 3: The MB delivers on its support, and the other parties betray them once they are in power, then the MB will play the victim card to the max, talking about how the liberal and socialist parties can’t be trusted, and how they are the only true patriots because they gave up on more power in exchange of having a national unity parliament with all the political forces, which would erase the fact that they have literally betrayed the secular forces of the revolution like 5 times now.

In post-revolution Egypt the Ikhwan (Brothers) is no longer simply the Gamaa‘a (Organisation). It faces no existential threat from a dictatorial regime or police state and now has a political party, Freedom and Justice. Officially approved on 6 June, it is led by three ex-members of the Brotherhood‘s Guidance Council. Soon it could be joined by four other parties spawned by members of the group: El-Nahda (Renaissance); El-Riyada (Pioneer); Haraket El-Salam Wa Al Tanmiya (Movement for Peace and Development) and the youth-led El-Tayar El-Masri (Egyptian Current).

None of the four have been licensed yet. First they will have to meet the requirements of the Political Parties Law, issued in March by the Military Council, Egypt‘s de facto rulers since Hosni Mubarak‘s ouster on 11 February. The new law stipulates that any political party seeking a license must first garner 5000 supporters from ten or more governorates.

“We believe, given the changing political landscape in Egypt, that it is in the interests of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence, that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Budapest. “And we welcome, therefore, dialogue with those Muslim Brotherhood members who wish to talk with us.”

Ungeachtet des gewaltsamen Vorgehens der ägyptischen Sicherheitskräfte gegen Proteste auf dem Kairoer Tahrir-Platz haben hunderte Demonstranten am Donnerstag erneut den Platz besetzt.

Morocco‘s King Mohammed VI has voted in the constitutional referendum he initiated after months of protests inspired by the Arab Spring. The youth-based 20 February Movement, which organised the demonstrations, has called for a boycott.

Military officials say dozens of Yemeni officers suspected of turning against embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been arrested under orders from his son.

The officials didn’t provide a number for the detained but said Friday they were arrested for either allegedly holding secret talks or leaking information to Saleh’s opponents.

Gulf kingdom‘s alleged campaign of intimidation extends thousands of miles beyond its borders

Die Griechenlandkrise beschäftigt sie hier in Aspen. Sie reden über Athen, als sei es ein Vorort von Washington.
Und vielleicht ist es das ja…

Phillip Zelikow, professor of history at the University of Virginia…
Jane Harmon, former U.S. representative from California…
Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff…
Mike McConnell, former U.S. director of National Intelligence…
Moderator Jeffrey Goldberg…

“Some people are deeply alienated,” warned Zelikow, “and they react with rage and dreams.”

Imagine some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers, and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world – all gathered in a single place, ready to teach, speak, lead, question and answer – all interacting with an audience of thoughtful people who have stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought and discussion.