Foreign Policy

In his letter of May 9, "The real reason behind immigration," Armen Melikian speaks of the sensibilities of the Armenian spirit that would be injured if the American flag was not lowered April 24. Quoting heavily from his letter, let's just take a look at his concern for Armenian sensibilities. According to his "personal experiences in the political arena," the Glendale Armenians are simply "propaganda tools" of American foreign policy who were "'dumped' in our backyard" as a result of our trying to advance the "concept of human rights -- a concept that could easily be sold to the American public."

Three Armenian American descendants of victims of the Armenian genocide nearly a century ago filed suit Wednesday against the government of Turkey and two Turkish banks, claiming they are owed at least $65 million for property seized from their relatives and untold millions more for the profits their lands generated. The lawsuit filed by two Los Angeles-area residents and a Washington, D.C. man could be the start of a flood of litigation spurred by last week's ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a California law recognizing the crimes committed against Armenians after 1915 as genocide.

Anyone whose daily vocabulary includes Facebook, My Space, or You Tube already knows of Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul and his 2008 presidential bid. ?I was looking on the net and found him,? said William Johnson, who opened his La Cañada home for a $2,000 per plate Paul fundraiser. Paul arrived at the Johnson Ranch after a rally on the Cal State campus. ?There were a lot of people at the rally, but that happens everywhere he goes,? Johnson said. An estimated 500 to 600 people showed up at the rally, many of whom found out about the event on the Internet.

Acclaimed journalist to speak at library Robert Scheer, a left-leaning columnist who was dropped nearly 10 years ago from the Los Angeles Times? editorial pages, is scheduled to talk about his latest book, ?The Pornography of Power,? at the Glendale Central Library tonight. Scheer, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication who edits Truthdig.com , was the main liberal editorial voice for the Times until, in 2005, he was fired for what he said was a political bent that didn?

Josh Kleinbaum In just a few days, Vicki Lynn Johnson will compete in her first election, the Democratic primary for the 26th District Congressional seat. Johnson, a computer scientist, will face Cynthia Matthews, an environmental management consultant, on Tuesday. But Johnson, 47, has not been focusing on Matthews, but Rep. David Dreier, her likely opponent in November's general election, should she win Tuesday. "At the time I filed [to run in the Democratic primary]

Alecia Foster NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- The future of civil liberties in America and the direction foreign policy might be taking were just a few things on college students' minds Thursday morning. Hundreds of students and faculty packed into Glendale Community College's auditorium to discuss those issues during a forum on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "After the attacks, teachers were really just as shocked as the students," said Michael Reed, geography professor at the college.

DOWNTOWN — A California law allowing heirs of victims of the Armenian genocide to sue in state courts for unpaid insurance benefits was deemed unconstitutional last week by a federal appeals court, setting off a wave of local reaction. A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday nullified the state law that allowed descendants of Armenian genocide victims killed by the Ottoman Empire to request payment on the life-insurance policies of relatives.

P.D. Spyropoulos Turkey is frequently portrayed as a reliable U.S. ally in one of the world's toughest neighborhoods. Yet, the controversy surrounding a recent Congressional resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide has laid bare one of Washington's best-kept foreign policy secrets: that the allegiance of our only Muslim NATO ally is becoming increasingly uncertain, and that Turkey has already frustrated key U.S....