Obama: A New Era? / IPS Inter Press Service

IPS Correspondent Gareth Porter talks to Democracy Now!

Despite Obama’s pledge, new evidence has emerged that combat brigades will remain in Iraq under a different name.

IPS Correspondent Gareth Porter talks to Real News.

The U.S. military establishment believed they could easily pressure President Obama to back down on his pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months. Having found Obama unconvinced by their argument, they have now launched a campaign in Washington to blame Obama’s withdrawal policy for any future instability in Iraq.

Obama Sits Down With IPS

OBAMA: "Subsidising Big Oil Makes No Sense"

Q&A: "I Appreciate This Unique Moment"

RIGHTS: U.N. Revisits U.S. Policies on Racial Profiling
By Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS - Millions of U.S. citizens continue to face discrimination at the hands of police and other law enforcement agencies just because they are not white, although the country's new leader in the White House is himself of African descent on his father's side.
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HONDURAS: Obama Declares Coup "Not Legal" Amid Uncertainty
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Capping a day of mixed signals, U.S. President Barack Obama said late Monday that he considered Sunday's ouster and exile of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to be "not legal" and that Washington still considered him the legitimate president of the Central American country.
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POLITICS: Obama Still Buoyed by Extraordinary Global Popularity
By Marina Litvinsky
WASHINGTON - Six months into his new job as president of the United States, Barack Obama inspires more public confidence than any other political leader, said a new WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) poll released here Monday.
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POLITICS-US: Playing the Hawk with North Korea
Analysis by John Feffer
SEOUL - If the Obama administration needed a rogue nation to demonstrate its foreign policy resolve, central casting couldn’t have supplied a better candidate than North Korea. The government in Pyongyang routinely promises to unleash destruction of biblical proportions on its enemies. It has pulled out of international agreements, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It has sentenced two U.S. journalists to 12 years of hard labour on the charge of violating its borders. And after conducting two nuclear tests, it now declares itself a nuclear power.
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RIGHTS-US: Obama to Approve Indefinite Detentions
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - As President Barack Obama struggles with the political backlash from a Congress determined to keep Guantanamo terrorism suspects out of the U.S., his administration is reportedly preparing an executive order that would give him authority to hold prisoners indefinitely without trial, according to weekend media reports.
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US-IRAN: "Obama Effect" Versus "Freedom Agenda"
By Daniel Luban
WASHINGTON - Two weeks after allegations of fraud in Iran’s presidential elections triggered massive and instantly-iconic protests, partisans here of President Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, are debating whose policies deserve more credit for encouraging the Iranian mobilisation.
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POLITICS: U.S. to Name Ambassador to Damascus after Four Years
By Katie Mattern and Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON - After informing the Syrian embassy in Washington on Tuesday night, the U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday that President Barack Obama will be sending an ambassador to Damascus for the first time since 2005.
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POLITICS-US: Obama "Appalled" by Iran Repression
By Khody Akhavi and Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON - Facing a growing chorus of Republican criticism to speak out more forcefully on Iran’s disputed election results, the U.S. president made his harshest statement yet Tuesday, condemning Iran’s leadership for its violent crackdown on protesters.
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U.S.: Neo-Cons, Republicans Paint Obama as Weak on "Rogues"
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - In what appears increasingly to be an orchestrated campaign, right-wing Republicans and Israel-centred neo-conservatives are pulling out all the stops in depicting President Barack Obama as "weak" on national security and promoting democracy abroad.
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POLITICS-US: Obama’s Right Turn
Analysis by William Fisher*
NEW YORK - Human rights and open government advocates were heartened by President Barack Obama’s pledge during his first week in office to create "an unprecedented level of openness in government" and "establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration".
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US-MIDEAST: Carter Adds Weight to Shuttle Diplomacy Push
Analysis by Helena Cobban*
WASHINGTON - Pres. Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and peace envoy Sen. George Mitchell have been moving steadily ahead with the campaign Obama launched on his first day in the White House, to broker a comprehensive and sustainable Arab-Israeli peace.
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US-IRAN: Electoral Chaos Energises Neoconservative Hawks
By Daniel Luban
WASHINGTON - As U.S. President Barack Obama attempts to navigate the treacherous currents of the ongoing political crisis in Iran, he faces a heated attack on his right flank from neo-conservatives and other right-wing hawks, who are urging him both to offer unequivocal support to the protesters supporting moderate presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi and to scuttle his planned diplomatic engagement with Tehran.
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POLITICS: Will "Changed" Iran Complicate U.S. Engagement?
By Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON - As uncertainty persists about the results of the Iranian election last Friday, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama remains quiet on just exactly what the next tack will be on engaging the Islamic Republic, which experts say is entering a new and unknown period in its history.
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POLITICS: India Takes Security Concerns to Shanghai Summit
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit at Yekaterinburg Tuesday appears to have been motivated chiefly by the security environment in the region shaping up around Washington’s ‘AfPak’ policy.
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U.S.: Govt Report Calls for Swift Action to Avoid Climate Chaos
By Ben Case
NEW YORK - Fiercer heat waves and wildfires in the U.S. western states, bigger storm surges along the country’s coasts, and disruptions to energy, water and transportation systems are just some of the expected impacts of climate change, according to a new White House report that marks the first scientific statement from the Barack Obama administration acknowledging that the problem is already directly impacting U.S. citizens.
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KOREAS: Obama Affirms Alliance with South Amid Rising Tensions
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - Amid rising tensions with North Korea, U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday assured visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak that Washington was firmly committed to their nearly 60-year alliance and their mutual determination not to yield to Pyongyang's demands that it be recognised as a nuclear power.
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ZIMBABWE: Tsvangirai Gets Obama's Seal of Approval
By Jim Lobe* and Katie Mattern
WASHINGTON - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai received U.S. President Barack Obama's seal of approval and a promise of 73 million dollars in education, health, and governance-related assistance after a mid-afternoon meeting at the White House here Friday.
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Barack Obama's presidency is resonating with people around the world who hope for a new era of international cooperation and engagement with the tarnished superpower. But Obama has inherited wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tanking economy, and global crises like climate change. IPS reports on the implications of the Obama administration not just for U.S. citizens, but for the world.