North America Archive

EARLY LAME DUCK — The resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday has reinforced the impression among foreign governments that with 15 months to go, the Bush administration is already in lame duck mode. Aside from Iraq, “nothing much is going on, not even for Afghanistan,” privately admits a senior U.S. official. Meanwhile, a Western diplomat said Karl Rove’s departure has triggered an exodus from the White House and the National Security Council. As a result, he said, “There are now more holes in the administration than in Swiss cheese.” Experienced foreign diplomats, accustomed to the lack of continuity from […]

Caribou Coffee, the second-largest U.S. java seller, seems at first blush like a fairly ordinary American company. The chain was founded in 1992 in the small town of Edina, Minn., the brainchild of idealistic newlyweds, and has since expanded to over 400 coffeehouses in 18 states. Caribou’s menu is muffins and lattes — not an Arabic coffee in sight. It may come as a surprise, then, to know that Caribou Coffee is “Shariah compliant,” one of the largest American businesses to run its operations in accordance with Islamic law. Caribou isn’t alone. After decades on the economic backburner, flush oil […]

WASHINGTON – Eight leaky patrol boats are at the heart of a bitter dispute between the Coast Guard and its former partners in the defense industry as the nation’s smallest military service struggles to update an antiquated fleet on a tight budget. In April, Adm. Thad Allen, Coast Guard commandant, announced at a press briefing that the service would decommission the eight patrol boats, worth around $100 million combined, just months after the first emerged from extensive work at a Northrop Grumman shipyard that included lengthening the hull by 13 feet. The lead vessel’s hull buckled on its maiden voyage, […]

Calling on Russian pilots to resume “combat duty,” Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Aug. 17 that his country’s strategic nuclear bombers would resume their Cold War-era practice of conducting long-range patrols “on a permanent basis.” He told reporters that “our pilots have spent too long on the ground. I know that they are happy to now have this chance to begin a new life and we wish them luck.” Although the main function of these aircraft is to conduct nuclear missile strikes against the continental United States, Putin said he hoped that other countries would show “understanding” for the Russian […]

According to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office, the dismal decline of America’s public image is not a sufficient reason for the State Department to take public diplomacy as seriously as it deserves. Well, to be precise, the report, titled “U.S. Public Diplomacy: Actions Needed to Improve Strategic Use and Coordination of Research” (pdf file), doesn’t use exactly those words. But here’s what it does say: The State Department’s “commitment to the development of a defined approach to thematic communications, centered on program-specific research, has been absent.” This is GAO-speak for the plain assessment that the U.S. government […]

DIPLOMATIC LUNCH — The French were elated by the success of the Bush-Sarkozy lunch at Kennebunkport, which Paris regards as the first in a sequence of meetings designed to establish a personal relationship between the two leaders. Sarkozy certainly, and Bush presumably, will be in New York for the opening of the U.N. National Assembly on Sept. 23, when U.N. ritual prescribes that they will sit together at lunch. An official visit to Washington by the French president will follow shortly afterwards, possibly by the end of that same month. The warming of U.S.-French relations is all the more satisfactory […]

On Aug. 2, after being escorted by a nuclear-powered icebreaker and another research vessel, two Russian mini-submarines traveled more than two miles below the ice at the North Pole and planted a titanium Russian flag in the seafloor, claiming the underwater territory for Moscow. The publicity stunt played to huge audiences in the Russian media and on state-run television, where the tone of the coverage resembled that given to Soviet cosmonauts. Elsewhere, the underwater mission was greeted with a mixture of humor and anxiety. Late night talk shows worried what the land grab would mean for Santa’s village and his […]

In a written statement submitted for his July 31 Senate confirmation hearing, Gen. James E. Cartwright, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command and the Bush administration’s nominee to become the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed that the administration has decided not to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) after it expires in Dec. 5, 2009. In his written description of his vision for developing a conventional, non-nuclear, prompt global strike capability, Gen. Cartwright included the following question: “Does the Administration’s decision not to extend the START Treaty have any impact on development of a […]

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — A year after losing Mexico’s contested presidential election, runner up Andrés Manuel López Obrador has largely fallen out of view and it’s unclear whether he can stage a comeback. But he can certainly still draw a crowd. Last month, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the vote he narrowly lost, López Obrador beckoned his followers to Mexico City’s enormous Zocalo (town square) for a rally, where the self-proclaimed “legitimate president of Mexico” once again branded the election fraudulent, invoked a new theory to explain his defeat and railed against proposed economic reforms. He also promoted […]

Earlier this year, the French General Secretariat for National Defense (SGDN) reaffirmed a warning to French policymakers that the ubiquitous BlackBerry represents a potential intelligence vulnerability when used to transmit sensitive information. The BlackBerry is a handheld computer developed by the Canadian firm Research in Motion (RIM) that allows users to forward electronic messages sent via the Internet (email) to the device. According to French sources, the main SGDN concern is that the security framework used by the BlackBerry to transmit email is vulnerable to interception by British and American intelligence. As a result, the French government restricted its use […]

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — When the Cuban government in 2005 selected Andres to treat the sick in Venezuela’s barrios, the chance to help poor Venezuelans was less important for the Cuban doctor than the opportunity to escape his communist homeland. “I didn’t arrive in Venezuela to work, I arrived and deserted right away,” he recalled in a recent interview in Bogotá while awaiting a hoped-for United States visa. Like other Cuban defectors, Andres asked that his full name not be used in order to prevent possible retaliation against relatives in Cuba. Cuba, whose socialized medical system is admired by many, has […]