Just what the world needs: alcoholic Bush back drinking, Nicolas Sarkozy drunk. Welcome to the world's most powerful "leaders."

Nicolas Sarkozy




And it has been speculated by others that the Moron's "stomach flu" was actually a hangover. (And given his "private" meeting with Sarkozy, that seems even more likely)



Bush hit by stomach complaint at summit

Jenny Booth and Roger Boyes in Heiligendamm

President Bush has returned for the closing ceremonies of the G8 summit in Heiligendamm after being taken ill with a stomach complaint and being forced to skip the morning working session.

The US President realised that he was "very much under the weather" as he got up and dressed this morning, his aides said.

He pressed ahead with an hour-long discussion with Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French President, their first bilateral talks since the French leader was elected last month.

As a precaution, however, the meeting was held in Mr Bush's private room, and the US President then had a lie down for the rest of the morning.

"President Bush is slightly indisposed this morning and will rejoin the working meeting as soon as he can," Mr Sarkozy said, as he emerged alone from the US President’s suite in the Orangerie, a luxury hotel in the Baltic Sea resort.

"I’m not sure if it’s a stomach virus yet or something like that," Dan Bartlett, an aide to the president, told reporters. "He’s just not feeling well in his stomach."

He added that Mr Bush’s doctor, Dr Richard Tubb, was monitoring the president’s health.

The White House said Mr Bush had sent his regrets to the other summit leaders and that the US envoy to the G8, Dave McCormack, had stood in for the President at the meetings.

The US leader returned to the summit to appear in the final ’family’ photo and attend its final lunch. He was to stick to his programme of visiting Poland briefly later in the day before going on to Italy.

"We are back on schedule," a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, told reporters. "The President had a good rest this morning. He’s feeling better, not 100 per cent, but he feels good enough to rejoin the meeting."

Indigestion or a mild case of food poisoning are suspected as the cause of Mr Bush's indisposition at the summit, where 60 chefs are on stand by to cook for the eight heads of state, their partners and entourages.

The hotel complex where the conference is being held has its own herds of lamb and goat, and prides itself on fresh, locally grown produce.

Security in the kitchens is tight, and the secret service is monitoring them. Summit observers have noted that the precautions taken around Mr Bush are especially stringent - in one incident, a German police officer was prevented by White House staff from so much as touching the door handle of the President's Lincoln limousine.

Fish - on the menu at Wednesday night's dinner at the start of the summit - is a speciality at the seaside resort. At lunch on Wednesday Mr Bush shared a meal of asparagus and veal schnitzel with his host, Angela Merkel.

Yesterday afternoon Mr Bush was photographed sipping something that resembled beer, while sitting around a picnic table in a small group with Ms Merkel, but as the President has not drunk alcohol for more than 20 years it is unlikely that it was anything stronger than a fizzy drink.

(This is the Moron in 1992)



At 7.30pm last night all eight heads of state at the summit attended a working dinner, where the topic for discussion was the less than digestible issue of how to lend new impetus to the Doha development round. The menu at the dinner has not as yet been made public.

Afterwards the leaders were invited to enjoy a digestif, or post-dinner drink, and to chat on a one-to-one basis, although the 9.30pm time slot was past Mr Bush's usual bedtime. The US President is an early riser.

Mr Bush has had an unfortunate record for becoming indisposed while in public office. In January 2002, he grazed his cheek after choking on a pretzel and fainting while watching television.

In June 2003 he fell off his Segway scooter at his family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, and in May 2004 he fell off his mountain bike, grazing his knees, hand, chin and nose.

In another bit of summit misfortune, in July 2005 Mr Bush crashed into a police officer while riding his bike around the grounds at the Gleneagles hotel while attending the G8 summit in Britain. The US President scraped his hands and arms, and the police officer was hospitalised with an ankle injury.

Mr Bartlett joked today that Mr Bush did not want to "follow in the footsteps of his father", former president George Bush, who endured public embarrassment in January 1992 when he fell ill at a state banquet during a summit in Tokyo, vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister and then fainted. The incident was blamed on flu.

Original article posted here.

Putin once again exposes the Moron as, well . . . A moron

Putin's smart Gabala gambit

By Nikolas K Gvosdev

By proposing to base an anti-ballistic-missile system in Azerbaijan - and to have it be a joint operation between Russia and the West - Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have caught the White House off guard. And the Russian leader, whose penchant for judo is well known, now appears ready to flip some of Washington's own arguments and statements to strengthen the case against the deployment of any such system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Gabala radar installation in Azerbaijan that Russia leases covers precisely the areas of the world where the threat from rogue states (or accidental launches) is most acute - the Middle East and the Indian Ocean basin. It is a bit more difficult to argue that a system based in the Czech Republic and Poland is somehow more effective at covering Iran than one in the southern Caucasus. (Interestingly, the Gabala station was once offered by Azerbaijan, in the late 1990s, to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for use as a possible base.)

After weeks of talks with senior US officials declaring they were perplexed by Russia's unwillingness to consider cooperation, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley commented in Germany: "We asked the Russians to cooperate with us on missile defense, and what we got was a willingness to do so."

Sentiment in Europe about deploying the US defense system is quite divided. No one wants to discount completely a possible threat from Iran, but many were concerned about the resurgence of tensions between Russia and the West if an East European deployment went forward. Putin's proposal now gives such critics - including those in the Czech Republic, where support for the US proposal hovers at only about 30% - a way out. They can cite, as Putin did, that an Azerbaijan-based system will cover all of Europe and that debris would not pose a risk to populated areas.

If Washington demurs from the Putin proposal, it then calls into question whether or not the United States had other "hidden" motives behind its desire to site the system in Poland and the Czech Republic - the so-called "beachhead" argument that a small system directed against Iran could then be expanded, over time, to be directed against what is a shrinking and less effective Russian nuclear arsenal.

Putin may also be wanting to demonstrate to the government of President Ilham Aliyev in Baku the "fair-weather" nature of the Americans. For years, the Azerbaijanis were quite interested in forging closer strategic ties with Washington. Putin, who claims to have discussed the Gabala proposal with Aliyev and said he received Aliyev's approval to make the offer, may also want to remind the United States that the easy distinction between "free" nations supporting the US and "unfree" ones being satellites of Moscow doesn't quite work when it comes to the Caucasus.

Putin now looks a lot more reasonable on the issue of missile defense than he did even a day ago.

Nikolas K Gvosdev is editor of The National Interest.

Original article posted here.

US continuing to promote terrorism in failed G8 shenanigans

G8 False Flag Terror Attack Averted? US "security men" attempted to smuggle C4 plastic explosive past checkpoint Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Sunday, June 10, 200

It looks highly likely that a false flag terror attack to be blamed on protesters of the G8 summit in Germany was averted after German surveillance stopped a team of "US security men" attempting to smuggle C4 plastic explosives past a checkpoint at Heiligendamm.

The alarming revelation was buried at the end of a Deutsche Press-Agentur news article about the ongoing battles between police and protesters at the global forum.

Sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that US security men tested German security by trying to smuggle C4 plastic explosive past a checkpoint at Heiligendamm.

German surveillance machinery detected the tiny stash in a suitcase in a car and the Americans in plainclothes then identified themselves. German police declined comment.

Was this simply a "test" as is claimed or more likely, an aborted false flag terror attack that was set to be blamed on protesters to legitimize the powerhouse G8 nations and the global elite while demonizing anti-globalization activists and justifying the use of lethal force against demonstrators?

If so, it wouldn't be without precedent.

During the Genoa G8 summit in 2001, police planted petrol bombs in schools and other residences of protest groups in order to justify brutal raids on the properties during which activists were severely beaten and jailed Police claimed the raids were justified because the protesters were planning violence.

After the trial against the police got underway, the bomb evidence conveniently "disappeared".

Original article posted here.

Putin continues to be unafraid of the West, the West on the other hand . . .

West 'fearful' of Russia, says exasperated Blair

Patrick Wintour, political editor

Tony Blair admitted differences with Russia would remain unresolved for a long time after one hour of very frank but wholly fruitless talks with President Vladimir Putin at the close of the G8 summit in the Baltics yesterday.

An exasperated Mr Blair admitted: "There are real issues here that are not going to be resolved any time soon". He warned the west was "worried and fearful" at the political direction of Russia.

The talks, ranged over western missile defence systems, the use of Russian energy as a diplomatic weapon, threats to Ukraine, and the refusal to accept British calls for the extradition of a former KGB spy for the murder Alexander Litvinenko.

The discussions came at the end of Mr Blair's 11th and last G8 summit with many of the world's leaders expressing their regret at his departure. Mr Blair refused to become nostalgic insisting he has been too busy to reflect on his departure.

At the meeting with Mr Putin, Mr Blair is understood to have raised the case of BP and Shell's multi-billion pound investments. Both claim the Russians have torn up contracts that would have given them access to key oil fields.

Six years ago Mr Blair and Mr Putin were on course to form one of the great bilateral alliances, but the relationship has ended in icy contempt. They did not even shake hands at the start of their meeting.

The discussions had been billed by the prime minister's spokesman as a conversation, rather than a showdown. But Mr Blair described the talks as very frank. "President Putin set out his belief that Russia is not being treated properly by the west and its allies. I set out our view that people are becoming worried and fearful about what is happening in Russia. It was a perfectly frank discussion, but what will come of it is another matter."

Although Britain has been warning that investment in Russia will start to decline unless President Putin recommits himself to democracy, the Russians point to growing investment and profits for the west.

The prime minister's spokesman countered: "The conversation was an honest assessment of the damage being done to UK-Russian relations. It is not one issue, but it just all adds up."

Britain like Nato is sceptical of a Russian offer to stage a missile defence system in the former Soviet Republic of oil rich Azerbaijan. Nato officials said the country was too close to Iran. Mr Putin countered that the missile interceptors could be placed in Turkey, Iraq or at sea. The US says Iran is the main target of its plan to install 10 anti-missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic.

The discussions were held against a backdrop of a row between Russia and the rest of the G8 over Kosovo, the province that Mr Blair played a key role in helping to liberate from Serbia in his first term in office. Russia has repeatedly threatened to use its veto at the UN security council to block plans to grant full independence for Kosovo from Serbia, one of Russia's spheres of influence.

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed delaying independence for six months to give Serbia and Kosovo further time to resolve their differences, but only on the understanding from Russians that Kosovan independence would come.

Mr Sarkozy said: "We cannot have a delay to let Belgrade and Pristina hold talks unless all the actors, notably the Russians, consider that the independence of Kosovo is an inevitable outcome."

The German chancellor Angela Merkel said she did not support delaying a decision on Kosovo whose Albanian population have pushing for a UN vote on independence. "There's no point in waiting for the sake of it," she said.

The Kosovan prime minister Agim Ceku said: "I want to say this to the international community: we have trusted you to bring clarity. We have committed to the UN path and we have been very patient. I urge you, do not betray this trust."

The final hours of the summit also saw a renewed push on a need for a conclusion to the global trade round which has been stalled for the past year. Mr Blair said: "We are very close. We are talking about a few percentage points and a few billion dollars. It hangs in the balance and the next couple of weeks will be vital."

Original article posted here.

Taking the term "Out of touch" to a new level

G8-Fortress Heiligendamm

Police patrol the site of G8 summit in the Baltic coast city of Heiligendamm. An estimated 100,000 protestors from anti-globalisation and anti-war groups will gather in this northeastern German port to show their opposition to the G8 summit.

by Stefan Nicola

The 19th-century Grand Hotel in this German resort is usually a hot spot for wealthy Baltic Sea tourists, who can enjoy five-star-plus service and a stretch of sandy beaches just a stone's throw from their rooms. For the Group of Eight summit, however, Heiligendamm has been turned into a high-security fortress.

At first glance, it looks somewhat surreal: a large, seemingly endless metal fence crowned with razor-sharp barbwire tearing through Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania's green and lush fields. The biggest barrier in Germany since the Berlin Wall, the $20 million monster is the main gadget in Germany's ambitious security concept for the G8 summit, which kicks off Wednesday. Some 7.5 miles long and 8 feet tall, the fence is designed to protect the leaders of the world's eight richest countries.

Germany has deployed more than 16,000 police to the area, and 1,100 military personnel are stationed in the vicinity on airfields or on one of the nine German navy vessels equipped with mine detection systems that patrol the coast. It is one of the biggest domestic military deployments and by far the biggest police mission in Germany's post-war history. Some 4,000 journalists are accredited to cover the summit, mainly from the International Media Center in nearby Kuehlungsborn, a big building that has been put up in a few weeks.

"Our guests have a right to demand that Germany does all it can to ensure their safety," Wolfgang Bosbach, a senior lawmaker of Merkel's conservatives and one of its security experts, recently told German news magazine Der Spiegel.

Signs of how serious Germany takes this event pierce the road from Berlin to Heiligendamm: As soon as you come close to the Autobahn exit Laage, which slopes toward the airport where U.S. President George W. Bush's Air Force One landed Tuesday, dozens of police cars (including armored vehicles) drive or stand every 500 yards or so by the side of the road and at several checkpoints. The total number of police cars must be in the hundreds. As this reporter passed the Laage exit, five large military helicopters hovered over the highway toward an airfield where an unusually high number of fighter jets was stationed. The closer you come to Heiligendamm, the more the area -- despite its vast green fields that are dotted by red and yellow spring flowers -- resembles a war zone.

At the end of the three-day summit, Germany will have spent more than $135 million, making the G8 in Heiligendamm the most expensive and most heavily secured single-venue event in Germany's history.

Officials say the security measures are justified. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has pointed to the security precautions that accompany any event that summons the likes of U.S. President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin; he has also noted the constant terror threat that the event is under. On July 7, 2005, during the Gleneagles summit, Islamist terrorists detonated several bombs in London's mass transit system.

Besides terrorism, there is another threat that has proven to be very real over the past couple of days.

Some 100,000 demonstrators are estimated to be in the region, and this past Saturday protests turned violent in Rostock, a northeastern German port city some 12 miles from the G8 summit venue Heiligendamm, where most of the anti-globalization events are staged.

Armed with large stones, bats and Molotov cocktails, some 3,000 black-clad men and women from the radical far-left scene Saturday clashed with thousands of baton-wielding riot police equipped with tear gas and water cannons. By the end of the day, nearly 1,000 people had been injured.

The riots come a month after German authorities launched massive coordinated police raids in six German states in an investigation against what Berlin sees as far-left terror groups wanting to disrupt the G8 summit. The Left has criticized the raids as trying to criminalize otherwise legitimate protest movements, and the move has led to more unity among the protest groups, observers say.

Yet officials say the raids were necessary: The past months have seen more than 50 anti-G8-related arson attacks, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin, the most publicized of which targeted the home of the deputy finance minister and the car of the editor in chief of Bild, Germany's conservative mass-selling daily.

Authorities are bracing for more violence during the summit: Some 2,000 of the most violent activists are still in the region, and they are apparently taking up chemical warfare tactics: Dressed as clowns, a far-left group has used water pistols to squirt a chemical fluid at police officers, several of whom had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

Original article posted here.