Flirtatious communication involving US Commander
General John Allen, top US commander in Afghanistan has been caught having an extramarital correspondence with Tampa socialite Jill Kelley. They used to exchange about 20,000 to 30,000 documents between 2010 and 2012 on a common mail address. All of them were full of sexual connotations, implying they were both involved in an affair. If the suppositions are proved to be true, Allen could be taken to the court for crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Before it became public, Jill Kelley was accused of having inappropriate sexual behavior towards David Petreaus, under a table during an official diner.
This new sexual scandal comes after CIA director, David Petreaus, resignation because of his extramarital relationship with the United States Army lieutenant, Paula Broadwell. They met in 2006 at Harvard University function while she was studying public policy; later she was the co-author of Petreaus’s biography, and until last Friday they were keeping up a relationship.
Now, an investigation was opened to determine if John Allen’s adultery is inappropriate for his nomination to be Commander of US European Command. According to White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, President Obama retains faith in Allen to lead US troops in Afghanistan.
Morgane Senotier, IEJ 3G
Israel cut the head of the Hamas
Ahmed Jabari was targeted in an Israeli rocket launched yesterday on Gaza city. He was the leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, more commonly known as the armed wing of Hamas. The missile exploded his car in Gaza street in the afternoon. Therefore, Hamas announced “We are now at war with Israel”.
Since the assassination of Imad MughniyehHezbollah’s senior military chief in 2008, Ahmed Jabari was Israel’s highest-profile target. He presided over the organization’s shift away from suicide bombings to increasingly deadly rocket attacks that have reached deeper and deeper into Israel’s heartland. He was also an architect of Hamas’ violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, during which the group waged a short but bloody war against its rival Fatah faction.
But Jabari is perhaps best known for the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier, symbol of the war between Israel and Hamas.
With Jabari gone, Hamas must now fill a considerable void, and this should create some disarray within the movement.
Pauline Rozenberg, IEJ 3G
Xi Jinping
takes reins of Communist party and Chinese military
Xi Jinping has been confirmed this Thursday as the man who will lead China for the next decade. He is the new head of the People's Republic of China, who currently holds the positions of leader of the Communist party and the Chinese Army.
Xi Jinping introduced the broadly conservative team who will lead the country with him. Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang and Wang Qishan are considered cautious reformers. The four other members have the reputation of being conservative. Xi Jinping will have to face the task of guiding China to a more sustainable model of growth and managing the country’s global rise.
Meanwhile, David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University said that “We are not going to see any political reform because too many people in the system see it as a slippery slope to extinction".
The main goal of Xi Jinping, left to him by Hu Jintao, is to fight the corruption that could end the People’s Republic of China. “If we fail to deal with this question correctly, it could be devastating for the party and even provoke its collapse, as well as the fall of the state”, said Hu Jintao.
In human rights matters he will have to decide whether he will unleash the intellectual dissident Lui Xiaobo (the 2010 Peace Nobel Prize) from prison.
Clémence André, IEJ 3G
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