Operation Clear Skies

A platoon of ten thousand cops are to guard President George Bush on his historic visit to Isreal tomorrow. It will be the first visit by a US president in more than a decade. The huge security exercise has been aptly named Operation Clear Skies.

So, what exactly is the purpose of this visit? Is he going to broker a deal between the increasingly isolated Fatah and Israel or peace between the katyusha-firing Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israelis? No one is sure.

Meanwhile Iran has denied that five Iranian boats made aggressive manoeuvers and showed hostile intent against three U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route in the Gulf. It is also reported that the Iranian vessels dropped small white boxes into the water.

What's common between Cheney, Bush and Obama?

So what have we here?! Dick Cheney's wife herself admits that her husband,Dick Cheney (vice Prez and co-perpetrator of the beleaguered Iraq debacle)and Barack Obama(Democratic candidate in running for the Presidential elections and part non practising moslem)are infact eighth cousins! Wait! There's even more. Obama and President George Bush are 11th cousins! No kidding!
Check it for yourself at Guardian Unlimited

Brushing off uncomfortable questions - Bush style

There are now almost 200,000 private contractors deployed in Iraq by the Washington administration. The US military forces in Iraq are now outsized by a coalition of billing private corporations whose actions and crimes go largely unmonitored and unpunished.
When questioned about how his government is proposing to bring private military contractors under a system of law, President Bush laughs it off and acts dumb!

Bush's teleprompter

Gaffe-prone Prez Bush's phonetic guide to pronouncement of names of foreign places and names. He may need a dead or alive guide too. Mandela will second that.

More on this funny episode here

One flew over Bush's nest!

Watch bird poop on President Bush when he was giving a press conference. The Prez used his fingers, not a tissue, to wipe off the crap!

Jekyll and Hyde Deal?

The bilateral nuclear agreement between the US and India called the Henry Hyde Act was passed by the US congress last December. Under this Act,the draft detailing the peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement — known as the 123 agreement,after the numbered clause of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act from which it is derived —and which is a prerequisite of the Act, is now facing major differences as USA is now taking a hard stance on nuclear testing, life time fuel guarantees and reprocessing rights of spent fuel.
The press briefing of the white house on may 17th 2007,indicated possible travel plans for Nick Burns, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, next week to India.It also stated that the 123 Agreement was not complete, but positive discussions would take place soon on important issues of Nonproliferation and Nuclear Energy.
Hence, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told members of Parliament that several rounds of discussions had already taken place and joint statements of the PM,Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush have been laid on the table of the House and that next week may be the decisive round to sort out the remaining issues for finalising the agreement when Burns meets with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.

In a new turnaround,even though the Bush administration has claimed progress on the 123 agreement as a prerequisite to implement the Indo-US nuclear deal, Nicholas Burns has cancelled his planned visit to New Delhi.
On May 2nd of this month, some US representatives have sent an open letter to Indian PM indicating concerns about an increasing cooperation with Iran. Read the document here

A contrarian view to the Hyde Act is that it will tie India's options and make her a vassal state of the US is opined in this article

End of cozy partnership

Tony Blair has announced finally that he will step down as prime minister on 27 June. War on terror and WMDs caught up with him at last!