Hillary Clinton salutes Ron Paul’s campaign

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton let it be known today that she thought highly of Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s sway with his supporters. (NEWSCOM)

“I just want to say, having campaigned during the last presidential election, you had the most enthusiastic supporters of anybody I ever saw,” she gushed.

“I love to hear that,” he replied.

CSM Vote Blogs | Apr 22, 2009

Hillary Clinton digs Ron Paul

By Jimmy Orr

Love was in the air this afternoon on Capitol Hill. Some bipartisan love.

No, it wasn’t between President Obama and Rush Limbaugh. Today they proved they couldn’t be any further apart.

It happened when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was testifying in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Among the numerous topics discussed, Clinton shed light on the administration’s thoughts on piracy, Cuba, relations with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a nuclear-armed Iran, and the future of Indonesia.

Could there be a better array of topics to spark some romance?

Full Story

‘Congratulations Barry,’ say Obama’s Indonesian schoolmates

AFP | Jan 21, 2009

JAKARTA (AFP) — US President Barack Obama’s former classmates in Indonesia brimmed with pride and expectation Wednesday after the chubby kid they knew as Barry became the most powerful man in the world.

Dewi Asmara Oetojo, a lawmaker in Indonesia’s parliament who went to primary school with Obama in Jakarta in the late 1960s, said her old classmate was a peacemaker with a “global” vision.

“For sure we’re very proud and grateful that Barry, who was part of our childhood, has been elected president of the most powerful country in the world,” she told AFP the morning after Obama’s inauguration.

“We’re convinced that he’ll be able to bring change because even when he was a kid he already had a ‘go global’ attitude.

“It will be easy for him to bridge all the differences between West and East. He will bring peace to the world.”

Obama’s ex-classmates, who have followed his rise to the presidency, gathered Wednesday at his old school in the leafy central Jakarta suburb of Menteng for a party to celebrate the inauguration.

“We all want to congratulate Barry, his wife and his daughters and we will have a party here at our former school to celebrate his inauguration,” Oetojo said.

US Ambassador Cameron Hume joked in a speech to the gathering of former and current students of Menteng One primary school that he hoped to see Obama “shooting hoops” at the school on a visit to Indonesia soon.

The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, Obama was raised in Hawaii and moved to Indonesia when he was six after his divorced mother remarried an Indonesian.

In his memoirs he recalled his time in Indonesia as the “bounty of a young man’s life.”

Onny Padma said he was “very, very, very proud” of his old playmate.

“It never crossed my mind that my friend, an Afro-American with a chubby face, would be elected as American president,” he said.

“He has a good understanding about Asian people. When he lived here he learned a lot about our culture. It will be easier for him to build better ties between Indonesia, Asia and America.”

Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority country in the world and has had a love-hate relationship with the United States since the 1960s, marked by US support for military dictator Suharto, who was ousted in 1998.

Many Indonesians opposed the Bush administration’s “war on terror” and its approach to foreign relations, and are hoping Obama brings a new style to US leadership with an emphasis on dialogue and understanding.

About 21 pupils from Obama’s old primary school performed traditional dances at a dinner in a posh hotel here late Tuesday to celebrate his inauguration.

One child read a letter entitled “Hope, Prayers and Expectations of the Children of Indonesia,” calling for an end to poverty and war and for better education around the world.

Newspaper salesman Iwan Tresna, 45, said he was doing brisk business as he wandered the tightly packed traffic jams in central Jakarta offering the news to motorists with the cry: “Obama is president! Buy! Buy!”

“Normally sales pick up when there’s big news. I’ve sold 80 copies today from 6:00 am to 11:00 am when normally I’d have only sold 60,” he told AFP.

“I think I can finish early today. I usually finish at 7:00 pm but today I can go home at 3:00 pm,” he added with a grin.

He said many people were buying two copies of newspapers when usually they would only buy one.

Rising fame for Obama ‘lookalike’

A combination photo shows U.S. president-elect Barack Obama (L), taken January 17, 2009 as he speaks during a ceremony in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Indonesian photographer Ilham Anas, taken January 20, 2009 in Jakarta. Anas, 34, who from some angles bears a resemblance to the new U.S. president, shot to fame in Jakarta after Obama, 47, won the election in November. Reuters

BBC | Jan 21, 2009

A “shy” photographer in Indonesia is in great demand because of his resemblance to the new US President, Barack Obama.

Ilham Anas, 34, is already a celebrity in Jakarta, where Mr Obama once lived, but his fame is spreading.

He has appeared on Indonesia’s premier TV talk show, done an advertisement as Mr Obama, and received other marketing offers from companies in the region.

The real Barack Obama went to school in Jakarta in the late 1960s, when his classmates knew him as Barry.

Mr Anas told Reuters news agency: “I was in the airport in Malaysia in transit and a man approached me and asked: ‘Are you Obama?’. I was very surprised when he asked to take a picture together and bought me a meal.”

Mr Anas’s increasing popularity arose after his colleagues, at a local teenage magazine, asked him to pose with a suit, tie and American flag, following Mr Obama’s election victory in November.

I see my resemblance to Obama as a blessing – I used to look at the mirror and I had a negative perception of myself
Ilham Anas

Soon, they were taking photos and sending them to friends. “The pictures spread very quickly on the internet. It was phenomenal. Then TV stations and an advertising agency got in touch with me,” he said.

Mr Anas was born and raised in Bandung, West Java. He says he is happy to cash in but there are limits.

“I will take all the opportunities that come my way, as long as they don’t violate ethical codes and my personal values,” he told AFP news agency.

And he admits that all the attention has given him something of a boost. “I’m actually a shy person. I don’t like being put in the spotlight.

Many Indonesians have a keen interest in Mr Obama, who lived in Jakarta for four years after his American mother, Ann Dunham, married Indonesian Lolo Soetoro following the end of her marriage to Mr Obama’s Kenyan father.

Obama’s school in Jakarta celebrates his inauguration

Antara News | Jan 22, 2009

Jakarta  (ANTARA News) – Nestled in a quiet street in Menteng, central Jakarta, State Elementary School (SDN) 01 celebrated Barack Obama`s inauguration as the 44th president of the US.

The basketball court, just a few steps away from classroom 3B where Obama spent one of his three years as a student, was converted to host the event for over one hundred guests.

Outside the main gate of the school, entrepreneur Liansatri sold t-shirts picturing Obama for Rp 25,000 each. On the back was the phrase: “Change We Can Believe In.”

Inside, US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron Hume wished the new president well and credited the school for providing his early education.

“In this year of crisis, when Americans look for a leader, they wanted a leader who had a sense of personal reserve, a leader who conveys that he would think before he acted, a leader who was sensitive to people of different backgrounds,” he said.

“I personally believe that those are skills we can see in that man, in large part bacause of his experience here at this school and I think that Americans have a reason to be greateful,” he added.

He went on to praise the Indonesian culture. “I think that we should be comfortable in the occurance that it is a person who was able to spend important years of his life here and to learn the wisdom that is evident in Indonesian society and the confidence that a person who benefited from that wisdom is in a position to lead,” he said.

Remembered by teachers as a curtious boy who waited until his friends finished their afternoon prayers before going out to lunch, Obama was honoured by retired principle Tine Hahijary and a traditional Indonesian `Gambang Kromong` musical performance.

Eleven years old Alifa Salsabila, who sang as part of the festivities, praised Obama for his kindness. “He is very, very smart and I hope he is a good president to the people,” she said.

Hopes of a shift in the perception of the Muslim world have dominated Obama`s rise to the Presidency. In his inaugural address in Washington DC, Obama spoke of mutual interest and respect between religions as the only way forward.

Obama`s former classmate, Colonel Danardono, described the inauguration ceremony as an unbelievable event in history. “I hope that he can fulfil what his people hope and also internatioanlly. Then we can build a natural understanding between the United States and Indonesia,” he said.

Another calssmate of Obama`s, Dewi Asmara Oetojo, spoke of how proud she was to have once known the president. “This is a celebration for the people. A win for the people,” she said.

US Ambassador Cameron Hume neither confirmed nor denied that President Obama will visit Indonesia this year as predicted. “I hope and expect that Barack Obama will be able to come to Indonesia this year.

So far its 12:30 at night on the day of his inauguration. He`s doing what we`re doing; He`s celebrating. He hasn`t had time to tell me what his travel plans are,” he said. (*)

China Censors Part of Obama Speech

NY Times | Jan 21, 2009

By EDWARD WONG and JONATHAN ANSFIELD

BEIJING — President Obama’s 18-minute Inaugural Address on Tuesday was generally lauded by Americans for its candor and conviction. But the Chinese Communist Party apparently thought the new American president’s gilded words were a little too direct.

China Central Television, or CCTV, the main state-run network, broadcast the address live until the moment President Obama mentioned “communism” in a line about the defeat of ideologies considered anathema to Americans. After the off-screen translator said “communism” in Chinese, the audio faded out even as Mr. Obama’s lips continued to move.

CCTV then showed an anchor asking an analyst about the economic challenges that President Obama faces. The analyst was clearly caught off guard by the sudden question.

The offending line in the president’s speech was this: “Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.”

Later, the president went on to say: “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

Chinese translations of the speech published Wednesday by state-run news organizations here and on prominent Web portals omitted that line and the word “communism” in the earlier line. The government, however, allowed the full English text of the speech to be published.

This is not the first time that the Chinese have censored an American official’s remarks. In 2004, former vice president Dick Cheney visited Beijing and was told he could speak, live and uncensored, to the Chinese people. But the broadcast on Chinese television received no advance promotion or even a listing in the Chinese news media and was not repeated.

The authorities promptly provided leading Web sites with a “full text” of the vice president’s remarks, including his answers to questions after the speech, that struck out references to political freedom, Taiwan, North Korea and other issues that propaganda officials considered sensitive.

In 2003, a government-owned Chinese publisher issued an authorized Chinese version of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s autobiography, “Living History,” that changed most of Mrs. Clinton’s references to her and former President Bill Clinton’s visits to China.

In the case of the Obama speech, the censorship might actually have drawn more attention to the address.

Word of the deleted references circulated rapidly online, and Chinese Internet users vented their displeasure. “This rubbish translation is edited at points,” groused one post attached to the translation on Sina.com, a popular Web portal. The post characterized the translation with an expletive.

Another user took offense at the speech itself rather than the act of censorship. The user posted a comment vowing to “defeat American imperialism.”

Some Internet users expressed outrage that President Obama lumped communism with the clearly reviled ideology of fascism.

Propaganda officials in China often deploy teams of commentators to post patriotic messages on Web sites and online bulletin boards, and it is often difficult to get a broad picture of public sentiments from a small sampling of anonymous postings.

Obama says he always thought Bush was a ‘good guy’

(L-R) Former President George H.W. Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, U.S. President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington January 7, 2009. Reuters

CNN | Jan 16, 2009

BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio (CNN) — After two years of traveling around the country and criticizing President Bush, President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that he “always thought [Bush] was a good guy.”

“I mean, I think personally he is a good man who loves his family and loves his country,” Obama said in an exclusive interview with CNN’s John King.

During the election season, Obama frequently campaigned against what he called Bush’s “failed policies” and promised a “clean break” from the past eight years.

Asked if there was anything he wanted to take back, now that he has spent more time with the president, Obama praised Bush’s team for helping with a smooth transition and said part of what America is about is being able to have “disagreements politically and yet treat each other civilly.”

Obama also said he thought Bush made “the best decisions that he could at times under some very difficult circumstances.”

“That does not detract from my assessment that over the last several years, we have made a series of bad choices and we are now going to be inheriting the consequences of a lot of those bad choices,” Obama said.

In addition to his relationship with Bush, Obama also discussed some key issues that he will face in the first days of his administration, including national security and the economy.

Even before taking the oath of office, Obama has already faced a showdown with Congress over releasing what remains of the $700 bailout bill that Bush and Congress authorized before the election.

The $350 billion that the Senate approved will come with specific conditions, Obama said.

“There’s nothing wrong with us placing some conditions, making sure that the money’s not going to executive compensation, making sure you’re not seeing big dividend payoffs to shareholders and making sure that money is being left so that we can get credit flowing again, not just for individual homeowners who are losing their homes, but also small businesses who are the lifeblood of this economy.

“If they can’t get credit, then they end up having to shutter their doors. And when they shutter their doors, people lose jobs. They then can’t pay their mortgage, and you start down the road that we’re on. We want to reverse that path, and that means that’s the way we use the next $350 billion that Congress voted on, and that was a very tough vote for a lot of people. And it was tough for me to have to request it,” he said.

Obama sat down with King after he took a factory tour in Bedford Heights, Ohio.

The interview will air in full at 6 p.m. Friday on “The Situation Room.”

Inauguration Day Security: Is a Police State Necessary?

Time | Jan 15, 2009

By Mark Thompson

The nation may be waging two wars, but those coming to Washington for the Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama can be forgiven for wondering if we’re in the middle of a third one here at home. Roads in the capital are suddenly being blockaded. Concrete barriers are popping up overnight on sidewalks. The city is taking on a bluish cast as its police presence surges. Not surprisingly, the debate has already begun: Is the unprecedented security a wise move given the historic nature of Obama’s swearing-in and the tempting target it provides or is it overkill, an indication that the terrorists have already won?

For the men and women charged with making sure nothing bad happens, that kind of debate is a luxury. Listen in as Air Force General Victor Renuart describes what sounds like top-secret war planning. “Our Chemical Response Force will be on alert,” he says, describing what some of the 11,500 troops who are assigned inaugural duties will be doing on Jan. 20. “We’ll use our NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] forces to increase the air-defense presence in the area,” he adds. Renuart, chief of the post-9/11 U.S. Northern Command, is responsible for defending the U.S. from attack. F-16s and Patriot missile batteries will be ready to deter, and if necessary shoot down, aerial intruders. Military choppers and Marine landing boats will be primed for an emergency. “There is a Joint Task Force in the capital region,” Renuart said, not at a war council meeting but a recent breakfast with reporters, “designed to provide large-scale medical response if you have an event.” (See 10 things to do in Washington, D.C.)

Well, of course we’re having an event — it’s the Inauguration. What Renuart means is that he’s prepared should terrorists strike while perhaps 2 million Americans jam together on the National Mall next Tuesday. “We ought to be prepared to respond if something does happen that requires the Defense Department to provide support,” he said, for “an event this visible and this important and this historic.”

Despite the fleets and armadas, the U.S. military is playing only a supporting role in providing inaugural security. The Secret Service, charged with protecting the President–elect and his family, is calling the shots. In addition to the military, the agency will be reinforced by some 8,000 police officers, many of whom will begin pulling 12-hour shifts directing traffic and patrolling downtown starting Friday. The D.C. police department is helping nervous companies by posting on its website a list of more than 50 licensed security firms that have declared they “are available for entities seeking security assistance” (no mention of how many are run by former D.C. cops).

While federal officials say they know of no credible threats to harm Obama or disrupt the Inauguration, they’re getting plenty of brickbats from Washingtonians upset by the security measures already in place and those yet to come. For the past week, taxi drivers and commuters have been complaining about the cordon set up around the Hay-Adams Hotel, where the Obamas have been living (they’re set to move into the Blair House on Thursday). Barring traffic around the posh accommodations, just across Lafayette Park from the White House, has clogged the capital’s arteries. It’s also compounding the crosstown traffic crawl, which has only gotten worse since President Clinton shut down the nearby two blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in 1995 following the Oklahoma City bombing.

Meanwhile, the Secret Service has infuriated Virginians just across the Potomac River by ordering all five bridges linking the state and capital closed to private cars on Inauguration Day. They say it’s necessary to minimize congestion in the capital, but not everyone agrees. “The Secret Service, they’re insane,” James Moran, a Virginian Democratic Congressman, told the Washington Post about the agency’s decision. “This is security on steroids.” He fought — and succeeded in reversing — a Secret Service decision to bar pedestrians from the 14th Street bridge, which would give walkers the closest access to the Inauguration. However, major Virginia roads inside the Beltway encircling the capital will be reserved for official vehicles only.

Four subway stations near the Mall will be shut down during the festivities, and the subway system — which is likely to be overwhelmed — is encouraging passengers to carry as little as possible so left-behind items don’t trigger police alerts. “On Inauguration Day,” the system adds in a final indignity, “all Metrorail station restrooms will be closed for security reasons.” (Luckily, the subway is setting up 146 porta-potties near its stations, and 5,000 will be located on the Mall and along the parade route.)

Obama, who is expected to give his inaugural address from behind a bulletproof shield, will be able to ride along the 1.7-mile parade route in his brand-new heavily armored Cadillac limousine. He’ll be shadowed by Secret Service vans crammed with heavily armed SWAT teams and electronic-warfare gear capable of jamming detonators designed to set off certain explosives. Electronic devices — like those already in use in the D.C. subway — will be used above ground, to sniff the air for biological or chemical agents. They’ll be aided by at least four Army dogs that will be sniffing for hidden explosives. Mike, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois, has worked presidential details before, according to his handler, Staff Sergeant Daniel Konrardy. The dog is calm in crowds and the only thing that bothers him is gunfire. “Hopefully, we won’t be hearing any gunfire,” Konrardy says. Snipers will be discreetly sprinkled along the parade route, and along with a battery of surveillance cameras, they’ll ensure that anything suspicious is quickly checked out.

Everyone attending the festivities will be subject to a “thorough security screening,” the Secret Service says, warning that “lines may be long” outside the 13 entrances along the parade route that will open at 7 a.m. on Inauguration Day. Everything that you think might be banned is. The list of items ranges from the “duh” variety — firearms, ammunition, explosives, knives and Mace — to the more mundane: coolers, thermoses, umbrellas, strollers and backpacks.

Such precautions might seem extreme until one ponders the attacks in Mumbai two months ago. Ten terrorists killed 173 and paralyzed a city of 13 million for three days, armed with little more than automatic weapons, grenades and cell phones. “Certainly, the Mumbai attacks ought to be understood clearly down to the local level,” said Renuart. What got his attention — and that of everyone planning security for Obama’s inaugural — is how quickly a band of terrorists could “hold a fairly large city hostage.” Banning umbrellas to help keep AK-47s off the Mall, the Secret Service believes, is a worthy trade-off, even if the public disagrees.

Obama inauguration very much a Hollywood production

SF Chronicle | Jan 15, 2009

By Carla Marinucci

(01-15) 14:10 PST — Californians dramatically lead the pack among big donors underwriting President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, with a roster of Golden State movie stars, film executives and businesses – including Google – putting up $6.4 million so far toward the next week’s events, a new report shows.

The Center for Responsive Politics in Washington today released an analysis that showed that Californian’s donations far surpass checks from the next most-generous state of New York, whose residents have given $3.9 million to the events, which are expected to cost upward of $42 million.

Among the California residents who gave the $50,000 limit imposed by the Obama campaign: directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, producers Jeffrey Katzenberg and Robert Zemeckis, actors Halle Berry, Sharon Stone and Jaime Foxx, and record producer Berry Gordy. San Franciscans include Levi Strauss executive Robert Haas, Steven Swig and theater impresario Carol Shorenstein Hays.

Google ranked as one of the top 10 donors – with seven individuals in the firm donating $175,000 to the event, the study showed.

“This is not the same kind of group that funded the Obama campaign,” which appealed to millions of people for small donations to pay the bills for its presidential campaign, said Massie Ritsch, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, which has posted data regarding inaugural donations online at OpenSecrets.org.

While donors have historically underwritten the event marking the start of a new administration, there have been some changes instituted by the Obama transition team in reporting and limiting the donations, the report said.

While disclosure rules don’t require making information public on donors until a few months after the event, the Obama team has “opted to disclose beforehand – and that’s positive,” said Ritsch. “We hope they’ll continue to use technology to make government more transparent.”

And traditionally, there have been no limit on donors to inaugural events, but Obama capped those donations at $50,000, which the center notes “is still more than 10 times what individuals could give to his campaign.”

Finally, the Obama team has made another change in barring contributions from corporations, labor unions, political action committees and registered lobbyists – though individuals from major corporations, such as Google, are free to make the maximum donations.

Ritsch says that the role of donors in the event will be important in more ways than one.

With an estimated 2 million or more people expected to be in the nation’s capital on Tuesday, “there’s no way to make this an inexpensive event,” said Ritsch. “The cost of the setting up to accommodate a few million people is large – and sure, you can scale down … but there is still a fixed cost that has to come from somewhere. And tax dollars can only go so far.”

Donors list

Some of the Californians who have made $50,000 contributions to President-elect Barack Obama’s upcoming inauguration:

– Halle Berry, actor, Los Angeles

– Jamie Foxx, actor, Los Angeles

– Berry Gordy, record producer, Los Angeles

– Sharon Stone, actor, Los Angeles

– Robert Haas, Levi Strauss, San Francisco

– Michael Kieschnick, Working Assets Long Distance, Palo Alto

– Jason Kinney, California Strategies group, Sacramento

– George Lucas, producer and director, San Rafael

– Jamie McCourt, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles

– Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Palm Springs

– Kate and Steven Spielberg, Dreamworks SKG, Los Angeles

– Steven Swig, Presidio School of Management, San Francisco

– John Thompson, Symantec Corp., Woodside

– Carol Winograd, Stanford University, Palo Alto

– Robert Zemeckis, Walt Disney Co., Burbank

Obama to become president amid tightest security ever

McClatchy | Jan 9, 2009

By GREG GORDON

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama will be sworn in as America’s first African-American president under the tightest security ever, shielded by a new, heavily armored Cadillac limousine, bullet-resistant glass, fighter planes overhead and Secret Service SWAT teams toting automatic weapons.

The level of protection is no surprise, given that the throng stretching 2 miles from the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial is expected to be around 2 million — with some estimates as high as 4 million, quadruple the usual turnout — and that Obama already has been the target of numerous threats.

Days before he was elected the nation’s 44th president, federal agents broke up an alleged plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to kill him. Then, on Tuesday, al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader issued a tape blaming Obama for Israel’s recent attacks on the militant Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. counterterrorism officials — boasting a daunting array of high-tech defenses, some of them developed since Sept. 11 — say they’ve received no intelligence identifying a specific, credible threat that someone will attack during the inauguration.

RECORD NUMBERS ON THE MALL

Still, the event poses a massive challenge for the Secret Service and some 10,000 officers from more than 100 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, “in part because of the large numbers of people converging on the nation’s capital,” retired Secret Service agent Robert Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, a former SWAT team leader who guarded four presidents over 22 years before he retired in 2004, said he also thought that the risk of harm to the nation’s first black president “is greater, because, unfortunately, I believe there is still active prejudice in our nation.”

He said the Secret Service began protecting Obama in the fall of 2007 — the earliest ever for a presidential candidate — because, he assumed, of “the intelligence and the threat level.”

Jack Tomarchio, who recently retired as the homeland security deputy undersecretary for intelligence and analysis operations, said that a black president could incite “a whole new cast of weirdos, like white supremacists or other people that might have a grudge against him purely because of his ethnic background.”

The Secret Service, which has mushroomed from 325 agents in 1981 to some 3,500 today, has demonstrated time and again its ability to safeguard presidents, vice presidents and other dignitaries at inaugural events. No would-be assassin has harmed a president since 1981, when drifter John W. Hinckley Jr. shot Ronald Reagan in the chest outside a Washington hotel.

The biggest risk might surround those massing on the National Mall, where no inaugural tickets are required and spectators can watch and hear Obama’s swearing-in and inaugural address on huge video screens.

Law enforcement officials have said that everyone will be checked on entering the mall, though they have yet to say to what extent.

“How do you search all of these people?” asked one retired Secret Service agent, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of security work. “If a suicide bomber or two or three got loose in that crowd, God only knows what would happen. It would be disastrous.”

The former agent said that even a smoke bomb could cause spectators to try to flee in panic, heightening risks that people could be trampled.

Since the inauguration has been designated a “National Special Security Event,” the Secret Service is responsible not only for the safety of Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, but also “for protecting everybody in attendance,” agency spokesman Malcolm Wiley said.

Wiley said his agency had seen nothing to suggest that the crowd would reach 4 million, but “we will be prepared to deal with that.”

SPECIAL WEAPONS TEAMS AND MORE

Security preparations have been underway for months, with law enforcement agencies drawing plans for protecting the airspace over the city, the Capitol grounds, the mall and the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest. The Secret Service and local transportation officials have announced that more than 60 streets, highways and bridges to Virginia will be closed or limited to official vehicles on Inauguration Day.

“The (nation’s) borders will be probably at a heightened state of scrutiny” in the days leading up to the event, said Tomarchio, the retired homeland security official. “Certainly, everybody’s going to be paying a little extra-special attention to the terrorist watch list, to high-interest individuals that may attempt to transit our borders during this time.”

One reason, he said, is that Pakistani terrorists’ Thanksgiving weekend attacks in Mumbai, India, which killed 173 people at 10 sites, showed other potential terrorists how much damage 10 heavily armed men could inflict.

Obama will wear bullet-resistant clothing, speak behind a protective glass shield and ride in the parade in the armored Cadillac limousine, with doors and windows so thick that he probably would survive a bomb blast, law enforcement officials said.

Trailing his car will be black vans loaded with Special Weapons and Tactics and counter-assault teams, high-speed communications equipment and electronic devices capable of jamming the detonators for homemade bombs.

Nondescript boxes that can detect the airborne releases of chemical or biological weapons such as lethal anthrax spores will be scattered among the crowds.

Wiley said that Secret Service agents had surveyed every building along the cordoned-off parade route, which like the Capitol grounds will be limited to ticket holders. Snipers will be positioned on rooftops and balconies along Pennsylvania Avenue, their eyes joining surveillance cameras in scanning to ensure that every window is closed and no one threatens the new president.

Under such security, Rodriguez said, “adversaries may look for a more opportune time to harm the president.”

Kissinger: Obama has a “great opportunity for a New World Order”

Policy guru says global upheaval presents ‘great opportunity’

WorldNetDaily | Jan 6, 2009

Kissinger: Obama primed to create ‘New World Order’

By Drew Zahn

Conflicts across the globe and an international respect for Barack Obama have created the perfect setting for establishment of “a New World Order,” according to Henry Kissinger, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former secretary of state under President Nixon.

Kissinger has long been an integral figure in U.S. foreign policy, holding positions in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations. Author of over a dozen books on foreign policy, Kissinger was also named by President Bush as the chairman of the Sept. 11 investigatory commission.

Kissinger made the remark in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” hosts Mark Haines and Erin Burnett at the New York Stock Exchange, after Burnett asked him what international conflict would define the Obama administration’s foreign policy.

Read “Hope of the Wicked,” where author Ted Flynn reveals the greatest deception in modern history – corporations, foundations and governments converging to bring about a New World Order.

“The president-elect is coming into office at a moment when there is upheaval in many parts of the world simultaneously,” Kissinger responded. “You have India, Pakistan; you have the jihadist movement. So he can’t really say there is one problem, that it’s the most important one. But he can give new impetus to American foreign policy partly because the reception of him is so extraordinary around the world. His task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period when, really, a new world order can be created. It’s a great opportunity, it isn’t just a crisis.”

Kissinger’s comments are captured at roughly the two-minute mark of the following video:

Kissinger: “It’s not a crisis. It’s a great opportunity for a New World Order”

Editor’s note: The video includes a balloon in the first several seconds promoting a MySpace page that includes profane language and music and is not endorsed in any way by WND.

The phrase ‘new world order’ traces back at least as far as 1940, when author H.G. Wells used it as the title of a book about a socialist, unified, one-world government. The phrase has also been linked to American presidents, including Woodrow Wilson, whose work on establishing the League of Nations pioneered the concept of international government bodies, and to the first President Bush, who used it in a 1989 speech.

“A new partnership of nations has begun, and we stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment,” said Bush before a joint session of Congress. “Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective – a new world order – can emerge: A new era … in which the nations of the world, east and west, north and south, can prosper and live in harmony.”

The phrase “New World Order” causes alarm for many Americans, particularly those concerned about an international governing body trumping U.S. sovereignty or those that interpret biblical prophecy to foretell the establishment of a one-world government as key to the rise of the Antichrist. Conspiracy theorists, too, have latched on to the phrase, concerned that powerful financial or government figures are secretly plotting to rule the world.

Kissinger’s ties to government and international powers – as well as his use of the phrase – have made him suspect in the eyes of many who are wary of what “new world order” might actually mean.

“There is a need for a new world order,” Kissinger told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose last year, “I think that at the end of this administration, with all its turmoil, and at the beginning of the next, we might actually witness the creation of a new order – because people looking in the abyss, even in the Islamic world, have to conclude that at some point, ordered expectations must return under a different system.”

As WND reported, Kissinger was also part of last year’s super-secret Bilderberg Group, an organization of powerful international elites, including government, business, academic and journalistic representatives, that has convened annually since 1954.

According to sources that have penetrated the high-security meetings, the Bilderberg meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and promote the idea that the notion of national sovereignty is antiquated and regressive.

CNBC’s Haines concluded the Kissinger interview by asking, “Are you confident about the people President-elect Obama has chosen to surround him?”

Kissinger replied, “He has appointed an extraordinarily able group of people in both the international and financial fields.”