Howard Berman News

With Nobel Prize winner added to his title, President Barack Obama returns home to focus not just on economic growth and job creation but also on how to successfully implement his new strategy in Afghanistan, the withdrawal of forces in Iraq, and the increasingly disjointed diplomatic tango with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

From : "ARF CC ER" Date : Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:49:31 PST ARMENIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION Eastern Region United States Central Committee 80 Bigelow Ave, Watertown, MA 02472 - Phone: 926-3685 - Fax: 926-5525 - Email: arfccer@hairenik.com PRESS RELEASE Contact: Bedo Demirdjian December 9, 2009 926-3685 arfccer@hairenik.com ARF WELCOMES ARMEN ...

Iran says it will only do the minimum required to cooperate with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency.

If a front-page news story falls in a Washington forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a front-page noise? No.

General Stanley McChrystal and US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry testifying before Congress, 10 Dec 2009 "By this time next year, new security gains will be illuminated by specific indicators and it will be clear to us that the insurgency has lost the momentum," said General McChrystal.

Breaking with his previous restraint, Israel's ambassador to the United States delivered an unprecedented blast against J Street, the new dovish Israel lobby that has made waves in Washington and throughout the Jewish community.

For years the pro-Israel lobby has been pushing more punitive steps to deter Irana s nuclear ambitions.

T hey come to America with children as young as infants. They work hard and attend school, yet they are undocumented students.

As members of Congress digest Obama's new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy and decide how they want to weigh in, some key staffers behind the scenes will be important to watch: Tom Hawkins - national security advisor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-KY Since the Senate GOP is poised to be Obama's main source of support on implementing his ...

Glenn Prickett joins The Nature Conservancy as chief external affairs officer, leaving his post as senior vice president at Conservation International.

E.J. Dionne writes for The Washington Post. Send comments about this article to Peter Grad, Op-Ed Page editor, at grad@northjersey.com. PRESIDENT OBAMA has bought himself some time on Afghanistan and lived up to his promise to seek policies that fit into no one's philosophical pigeonholes.

Democratic Rep. John Murtha - just back from a fact-finding trip to Afghanistan - said Monday that he never got a clear definition of what constitutes an "achievable victory" for the United States and fears that American commanders are assuming more time for the war effort than voters at home will allow.

Efforts in the U.S. to end the 46-year-old travel ban to Cuba got a boost last week during a hearing in Washington on whether to lift the ban.

After weeks of talk about health care, the Sunday shows turn to the speech President Obama will deliver at West Point on Tuesday night detailing his plan for Afghanistan with legislators from the armed services and foreign relations committees in both chambers weighing in.

For anyone out there who shares my enjoyment of poring over these things and reading too much into them, I'veA pasted after the jump a list of the expected attendees at tonight's White House State Dinner for the Indian Prime Minister.

At a time when a human rights organization is charging that Raul Castro is just as ruthless as his brother Fidel, when Cuban political prisoners are on the rise, when dissidents are being assaulted by government goons on the streets of Havana, a growing number of American lawmakers are ready to end the Cold War with Cuba - by surrendering our ...

The list of expected guests for President Barack Obama's first White House state dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as provided by the White House.

WASHINGTON: A.R.Rahman will join Jennifer Hudson in providing entertainment for the Obama's state dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed just hours before the banquet.

Cuba's celebrated and increasingly brassy blogger Yoani Snchez emerged Thursday as a player in U.S.-Cuba relations, scoring a lengthy reply from President Barack Obama to her questions and playing a starring role in a congressional hearing on efforts to let American tourists visit Cuba.

Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 12:12 a.m. Last Modified: Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 3:07 a.m. WASHINGTON At a tempestuous hearing, one House member after another criticized a growing campaign to lift the ban on American tourists traveling to Cuba.