Sarasota-Manatee Herald-Tribune (News Section)
dated Wednesday 21st January 2009
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This US broadsheet shaped newspaper is quite unfamiliar in
the UK – our broadsheet size being the same depth but almost twice as wide.
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Barack Obama had defeated Republican candidate John McCain
at the Presidential Election back in November 2008, but as is traditional, was
not Inaugurated until January 20th 2009. He was the first African-American
to become President and for many this was far more important than the man’s
politics.
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There was also a wave of relief that the dark days of Bush’s
administration following 9/11 were over. Optimism was the order of the day and
Obama the messiah who would lead the America people to a bright new future -
give or take a financial meltdown or two!
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“Don’t look now, Michelle, but there’s a weirdo
in the audience who thinks she can levitate.”
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Although born in Connecticut, George W Bush was raised in
Texas and was Governor of the State before becoming, like his father George H W
Bush, President. Since 2009 he has kept out of World affairs. Some would say
‘thank goodness’.
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There was a sigh of relief heard around the World when
George W Bush finally left the White House. I believe that the West was in more
danger during his Presidency than at any time since the Cuban Crisis of 1962.
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...Or to put it more succinctly.
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The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military
aviators in the United States armed forces to fly in combat when the Tuskegee
332nd Fighter Group saw action in Sicily and Italy in 1943.
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In October 2008 ex-‘American Idol’ finalist Jennifer Hudson’s
mother, brother and 7 year-old nephew were murdered by Jennifer’s
ex-brother-in-law William Balfour. He was sentenced to 3 terms of life
imprisonment in July 2012. His father Raymond Balfour was sentenced to 30 years
for murder in 1987.
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Gary McKinnon was accused of hacking into US Military
computers in 2001 and 2002 and, amongst other charges, of deleting important
files. In the atmosphere of paranoia and fear that followed the 2001 World
Trade Centre attacks the British Government enacted the 2003 extradition treaty
with the United States which did not require the United States to provide
contestable evidence before requesting the extradition of a suspect. McKinnon
and his supporters have spent the years since then fighting against his being
sent to the USA.
I wonder how many millions of dollars the US Military spent
on ‘security consultants’ when they set up their systems. They should be glad
it was someone as comparatively ‘harmless’ as McKinnon who found a way in.
