From Volume 8, Issue 23 of EIR Online, Published June 9, 2009

United States News Digest

Obama Anti-Drug Strategy Lacks Leadership

June 6 (EIRNS)—The Obama Administration released a new counter-narcotics strategy for the Mexican border, which places new emphasis on deploying new technology, stepping up intelligence gathering, and increasing the interdiction of ships, aircraft, and vehicles that smuggle drugs, guns, and cash. According to the Washington Post, the document calls on Federal agencies to modernize airborne sensors and extend surveillance of boats "from the coast to beyond the horizon." It also calls for improving tracking devices that can be hidden in drug shipments and allowing, in some cases, banned items to move through smuggling networks, in hopes of exposing their leaders.

But the agencies that will be key to executing such a strategy are still led by career bureaucrats, acting in a temporary capacity. Administration has yet to nominate any candidates to head the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Clinton Nixes Gore as Special Envoy to North Korea

June 6 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has dashed whatever hopes Al Gore might have had to be a special envoy to North Korea, at least, for now. Gore's name has been floated to possibly negotiate the release of two American journalists whom North Korea is putting has put on trial for illegally entering the country. (On June 8, the two journalists were found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison—ed.) The journalists, both women, are employees of Gore's Current TV. Clinton called on North Korea yesterday to release the two women, but downplayed any talk of a special envoy. She said the option of a special representative was discussed "But as things stand now, we know that they're in the middle of a trial in Pyongyang, and we hope that the trial is resolved quickly and that the young women are released."

Obama Asks for the Queen, But Gets Prince Charles

June 3 (EIRNS)—The day after the White House announced that President Obama was pressuring the French to invite the Queen of England to attend the D-Day commemoration at Normandy Beach on June 6, the British royal family announced that Prince Charles had accepted the French invitation. This followed reports that the Queen was furious that she was being left out of the events. Buckingham Palace had pronounced last week that "neither the Queen nor any other members of the royal family will be attending the D-Day commemorations on June 6, as we have not received an official invitation."

But yesterday, after the White House had flagged Obama's intervention, Charles' staff announced that he would be attending instead, in response to a belated invitation issued by the French ambassador in London.

Galbraith Praises de Gaulle's and FDR's 'Intervention' in Economy

June 2 (EIRNS)—According to American economist James Galbraith, quoted in this month's French economic magazine L'Expansion: "The French genius is based on its capacity to plan great projects before others, in aeronautics, transportation, or energy. Also in regulating markets, the lesser impact of the banking crisis in France is due to stricter regulation which played a preventive role on risks." But, the United States and France are not so distant. "France and the United States have public institutions and very interventionist histories, under the leading figures of de Gaulle and Roosevelt. Both countries have always given to their central banks a very political role."

'Whistleblower' Nails Obama's Narcissism

June 1 (EIRNS)—The May issue of Whistleblower magazine offers a devastating exposé of President Barack Obama's Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), including commentaries by several psychologists. While the coverage contains a lot of right-wing political spin, the unmistakable and well-documented profile that emerges is that the President displays all of the nine clinical symptoms of NPD.

One of the more substantive articles is by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., the author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited. The article features a full-page color illustration of Obama as Henry VIII, accompanying a detailed summary of the clinical symptoms of NPD. Another article, by Ali Sina, was extracted from a longer piece posted on www.faithfreedom.org, titled "Understanding Obama: The Making of a Führer," drawing personality comparisons between the President and Hitler (but not picking up on the policy agenda, like Obama's push for a health-care "reform" based on the Hitler precedent).

The article picks up on the main theme of Lyndon LaRouche's April 11 webcast, which was titled, "President Obama's 'Narcissus Syndrome.'"

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