John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — We are witnessing an intense geopolitical chess game over Syria. The players: Barack Obama, President of the United States, former Senator, and Chicago community organizer versus Vladmir Putin, President of the Russian Federation and former Soviet KGB intelligence operative. Moscow has just made a move which appears to have […]
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — North Korea was believed to have sent chemical weapons technology to Syria. A United Nations panel and Western analysts agreed that Pyongyang was shipping CW technology to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. They said the CW assets could have facilitated non-conventional weapons attacks against the Sunni revolt over […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Decrying a rising death toll and an escalation of violence, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly called yet again for progress towards a political transition to defuse Syria’s civil war, now in its third year. Though the resolution strongly condemns the Syrian government of Bashar Assad for its increased use […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The winds of change continue to swirl throughout the Middle East as the region enters the third year of the socio/political phenomenon optimistically dubbed as the Arab Spring. While political scientists debate the ebb and flow of freedoms and anarchy in the region ranging from Egypt to Libya and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com (Originally posted on Aug. 26, 2003.) U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction have finally been located. Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq. Instead they are located in Lebanon’s heavily-fortified Bekaa […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Tis’ the season in the General Assembly for some serious if generally overlooked work and reports. An Assembly committee has soundly condemned the continuing human and political rights abuses in three global transgressors; Syria, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the quaintly titled Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, aka […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Ed Koch I was struck by an article which appeared in The New York Times on Nov. 19 reporting on the position of the British government on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Almost everyone acknowledges that the Hamas government in Gaza started the war, except for their Muslim supporters […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Ed Koch On Sept. 27, 2012, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel delivered a speech to the United Nations. That speech is well worth reading, if someone is interested in world events and, in particular, a discussion of why it is a matter of life and death whether Iran is able […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama’s speech before the UN General Assembly was directed to two domestic audiences. One Main Street USA where outrage and anguish over the killing of American diplomats, the trashing of diplomatic property throughout the Middle East, and the seething resentment towards America is viewed as a both […]
Sol W. Sanders Only Lewis Carroll could have done justice to the Obama administration’s fall down the dark hole into the U.S.’ latest Middle East misadventures. Beginning with his Cairo and Istanbul speeches in the spring of 2009, President Obama attempted, indeed, “a new beginning,” as speechwriter Thomas E. Donilon, now, significantly, national security […]
