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Ed Henry: Sources say Obama will give in to Iran on nuclear program
On Tuesday #39;s OReilly, Ed Henry revealed that Obama is going to Saudi Arabia in an effort to head off a mid east nuclear arms race. Sources say that Obama may...
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Ed Henry: Sources say Obama will give in to Iran on nuclear program - Video
Obama #39;s guards got drunken
Obama #39;s guards got drunken.
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Calling it a global "moment of testing," President Barack Obama appealed to Europeans on Wednesday to recommit to the war-won ideals of freedom and human dignity, declaring that people voicing those values will ultimately triumph in Ukraine.
Painting a historical arc across the major global clashes of the last century and beyond, Obama said young people born today come into a world more devoid of conflict and replete with freedom than at any time in history even if that providence isn't fully appreciated. He urged the 28-nation NATO alliance to make good on their commitments to the collective security that has fostered prosperity in the decades since the Cold War concluded.
"We must never forget that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom," Obama said, adding that the Ukraine crisis has neither easy answers nor a military solution. "But at this moment, we must meet the challenge to our ideals, to our very international order, with strength and conviction."
Drawing on modern struggles, like gay rights, as well as the ethnic cleansing and world wars of a bygone era, Obama sought to draw a connection between the U.S. experiment in democracy and the blood spilled by Europeans seeking to solidify their own right to self-determination.
"I come here today to say we must never take for granted the progress than has been won here in Europe and advanced around the world," Obama said.
Indeed, the Europe that Obama confronted on Wednesday was taking little for granted.
Calm on the continent has been upended by Russian President Vladimir Putin's foray into the Ukrainian region of Crimea. Defying the global community, Moscow annexed that peninsula this month, stoking fears among Russia's other neighbors as Europe was plunged back into an East-West mentality that many had thought was left behind at the end of the last century.
"If the Russian leadership stays on its current course, together we will ensure that this isolation deepens," Obama said. At the same time, he acknowledged that military force would not dislodge Russia from Crimea or prevent further encroachment, holding out the allies' combination of pressure and an open door to diplomacy as the path to peace.
In his remarks at a cultural center in Brussels, Obama sought to shape a unifying theme out of a weeklong foreign trip whose original purposes have been eclipsed by a burst of diplomatic maneuvering over the conflict with Russia. In stops so far in the Netherlands and Belgium, Obama has sought to coordinate the European and American response to Putin, despite some Europeans' misgivings about enacting anti-Russian sanctions that could backfire and the American public's reluctance to embroil the U.S. in another faraway conflict.
Earlier Wednesday, Obama pledged to defend U.S. allies during a meeting with NATO's secretary general, and on Monday he held an emergency meeting with leaders of major economies focused on tightening economic pressure on Moscow.
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WASHINGTON President Obama's new plan for the National Security Agency would significantly curb its authority, ending its vast collection of Americans' telephone records, but at the same time give the spy agency access to millions of cellphone records it currently does not reach.
The compromise, which would require Congress' approval, won praise Tuesday from prominent lawmakers, including leading defenders and critics of the agency. But it faces a lengthy legislative process during which the agency will continue to collect and store the records of millions of U.S. telephone calls.
At a news conference in The Hague, where he took part in a world meeting on nuclear security, Obama said the Justice Department and intelligence agencies had given him "an option that I think is workable" and that "addresses the two core concerns that people have" about the most controversial surveillance program revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Photos: Hacking victims
The first concern, Obama said, was that the government not control a vast archive of U.S. telephone call data. Currently, the NSA collects records of virtually all land-line telephone calls in the U.S. and stores them for five years.
Under the administration proposal, the government would no longer keep that archive. Instead, all telephone companies, including cellphone providers, would be required to keep call records for 18 months, the current industry standard.
The second concern, Obama said, was that the NSA be allowed to search only those phone records under a specific court order. Previously, a blanket court order required telephone companies to turn call records over to the NSA, but no judge scrutinized analysts' decisions about which numbers to look at.
In February, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved Obama's request to require judicial approval for each search. The new proposal would write that requirement into law, with an exception for emergencies.
U.S. intelligence agencies have to "win back the trust, not just of governments but more importantly of ordinary citizens" around the world, Obama said. Doing so is "not going to happen overnight because I think that there's a tendency to be skeptical of government and to be skeptical, in particular, of U.S. intelligence services," he added.
The new plan should help make Americans more comfortable with the surveillance program, he said. Obama repeated his belief that "some of the reporting here in Europe, as well as the United States, frankly, has been pretty sensationalized," and he said that U.S. intelligence analysts had exercised their authority judiciously. But such power could be abused in the future, he said.
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President Barack Obama and European Union leaders presented a unified front Wednesday against Russia's annexation of Crimea, promoting trans-Atlantic trade as an antidote to Russia's influence in the region and a way to help Europe become less dependent on Moscow for energy.
Obama said if Russian leaders thought they could drive a wedge between Europe and the United States "they clearly miscalculated."
Obama spoke during a news conference at the Council of the European Union, after a working lunch with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that participants said was dominated by discussion of Ukraine. Van Rompuy called Russia's action in Crimea "a disgrace in the 21st century, and we will not recognize it."
Obama said coordination between the U.S. and Europe on economic sanctions against Russia has been excellent and warned that if Russia continues on its current course, "the isolation will deepen."
The leaders also expressed confidence they would complete a Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that seeks to remove trade barriers between the 28-nation bloc and the U.S. Obama noted the arrangement would have a Ukraine connection because it could provide a counterweight to Russian energy leverage in Europe.
Obama said some countries have legitimate questions about whether free trade deals will benefit them in the long-term. But he cautioned skeptics to wait to see what's negotiated before reaching conclusions.
The president said some suspicions about the so-called TTIP have been unjustified. He declared that he has fought for consumer and environmental protections during his political career and will not sign legislation that would weaken those protections.
"I'm confident we can actually shape a trade deal" that is acceptable to critics on consumer protections and climate issues, he said.
Obama's own relations with Europe have been hurt by revelations of communications prying by the U.S. National Security Agency. Van Rompuy said E.U. leaders conveyed their concerns directly to Obama in their meeting, and the president agreed to take aggressive steps to address the issue. Van Rompuy called for "equal treatment of E.U. and U.S. citizens."
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